The Second Firestorm
by Alaska829Snow
Summary: "Next time I'll do the same thing." A fire occurs at Regina's mansion and Emma has a strong feeling it wasn't an accident. Swanqueen!
1. Sound the Alarm

It was 1:15 AM and Regina Mills couldn't sleep.

She was mentally scolding herself for indulging in that third cup of coffee. She knew she shouldn't have had it. But when Emma surprised her in the late afternoon with a cup from Grannys, she just _couldn't_ say no. She was still adjusting to the reality of having someone in her life who was constantly going out of the way to put a smile on her face. She didn't know how to say no to that; on the contrary, she wanted to revel in it.

But now, she was certainly suffering the consequences; she had been under the covers since eleven and just couldn't seem to silence her mind.

She sighed as she turned over in order to face Emma; the savoir was sound asleep. She wanted to wake her up so they could talk about anything, anything at all to distract her. But she wouldn't do it, she felt it was too selfish and Emma simply looked too peaceful.

It was just no use. Regina got up from bed, tied her robe around her body and slipped her feet into her black cotton slippers.

She wandered downstairs to kitchen and made herself a cup of "sleepy" tea. It was a box she had bought for Henry who, every once in a while, still suffered insomnia as result of that damn sleeping curse. When the kettle whistled, she poured the steaming water and wrapped her fingers around the warm mug. She suddenly had a brilliant idea: maybe a book would be just the thing she needed to tire herself out.

Once she was in the library, however, her eyes drifted to her old photo albums; the ones of Henry's childhood. She picked one from the shelf and sat down on the couch. She flipped through the pages and smiled at the images of birthday parties, school field trips and holiday events.

For the first time, she also thought about how she couldn't wait to add new pictures to these books-because this time Emma would be in them. Emma, who had been such an unexpected and, at first, unwelcome surprise in her life. But after all the denial and resistance Regina had put up, she knew Emma was the person who made her family complete.

Still, she realized there was one big step they had yet to overcome: revealing their relationship.

Emma was getting along with Regina, she told her parents, _"for Henry."_

Emma was spending so much time with Regina, she told her parents, _"for Henry."_

Emma had moved in to the mansion, she told her parents,_ "for Henry." _

Emma had failed to mention to her parents, or anyone else in the town for that matter, that they had been together for six months.

Regina was perfectly alright with the lie. In fact, she had encouraged it. She told Emma they would deal with that step "when they were ready." In the fragile state Regina was in after losing her mother, after sending her back to the enchanted forest, she was all to happy to keep her private affairs to herself. Plus, she wasn't exactly looking forward to the wrath of the Charming family- the wrath that would undoubtedly result from them finding out their daughter was in love with the Evil Queen.

But she was starting to get impatient. It was impossible for them to truly start their lives together if they had to keep up the act. Dr. Hopper agreed the secret could only be kept for so long. And she was certain that Whale caught a glimpse of them holding hands under the table when they were out to dinner last week.

She put down the photo album and grabbed the throw blanket from the end of the couch. The tea had worked more quickly than she anticipated and something about this room was surprisingly cozy. She was just too comfortable to make her way back up the stairs. And Emma was too tired to notice her absence, anyway. She closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Emma stirred in bed- somewhere in the state between being asleep and awake, she swore she smelt something burning. As she tried to process the information, she noticed Regina wasn't next to her. Was she cooking? Was it already breakfast time? Emma glanced at the clock which read 3:25 AM. There was no way Regina was in the kitchen at this hour.

Something was off; something wasn't right.

She got out of bed, her bare feet hitting the cold wooden floor. She turned the lights on, trying to force her eyes, and mind, to wake up. When she opened the bedroom door she was quickly overcome by the smell of fire. She looked down the stairs and was horrified when all she could see was white clouds of smoke.

"Fuck," she muttered.

Her motherly instincts kicked in as she ran to Henry's room and flung open the door. At first, when she saw that the room was empty, her heart sank in her chest. Quickly, however, she reminded herself that Henry was with her parents. He had spent all night at the stables with her father. The relief, unfortunately, was temporary; she still didn't know where Regina was.

She ran down the stairs, losing her breath as she walked into smoke.

"Regina!?" She screamed through painful coughs. "Regina?"

Her entire body froze upon the sight of their kitchen set ablaze. Her eyes searched the burning room but found no sign of Regina.

"Regina," she screamed again. Still, she was only met with silence.

She noticed then that the library door was open. Of course, she should've realized it sooner; it was Regina's favorite place in the house.

Emma started to feel dizzy as she entered the room. She dropped to her knees and crawled to the couch where she found Regina passed out. She shook the brunette twice and received no sign of a response. Emma knew she was going to have to find the strength to carry Regina out of the house.

She relied solely on adrenaline as she stood back up on her feet and scooped Regina up into her arms. Her eyes were burning and her legs felt like they were buckling beneath her. But she knew she had to get them out alive. Henry couldn't lose both his mothers in one night.

* * *

Once outside, Emma placed Regina down on the grass. She was still breathing, but the breaths were slow and labored.

"Regina," she begged, as her hands trembled with fear, "wake up."

"Emma," Ruby screamed as she ran to the lawn. "Are you guys okay?"

"I need you to call... call someone," Emma said out of breath. "She won't wake up."

"I already called- I smelt the fire. They're on the way."

Seconds later, Emma heard the sound of ambulances and firetrucks racing down the street. The loud sirens triggered a disturbing realization: no fire alarm had gone off in their house. If Emma hadn't smelt the smoke, they would have both died. What was even stranger was that she knew, for certain, that Regina had an alarm system. In fact, she remembered the very day it was installed.

"I love you," Emma whispered as she hovered over Regina. "Help is almost here-just stay with me, _please._"

As the words escaped Emma's lips her mind was racing.

She had come to a very scary conclusion: this _wasn't _an accident.


	2. Wired

Thanks for the positive feedback everyone. This chapter turned out longer than expected but I hope you enjoy it :)

* * *

Emma stood stoically by Regina's hospital bed.

Dr. Whale had just informed her that Regina was going to be okay, though he warned that it would take at least a week for her lungs to fully recover.

_"It could've been much worse,"_ he said.

Emma kept trying to remind herself to be grateful. Because she knew that Whale was right. It could've been a lot worse.

Still, as she watched the IV fluids drip into Regina's veins she couldn't help but feel like it was _already_ pretty damn bad.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sight of her parents and son entering the waiting room. She was hesitant to leave Regina's side—she didn't want to take her eyes off of her—afraid something would go wrong the moment she turned her back. But, of course, she also knew she had to comfort their son-that Regina would want her to comfort Henry. So she concluded she had no choice but to step out for a minute.

Once in the waiting room, Henry ran to her and threw his arms around her waist.

"What happened?" He asked, as he looked up at her with concern.

"We had a fire, kid," she explained. "Your mom will be alright, but she's going to need some time to recover."

"Can I see her?"

"She's sleeping, but I know she'd want you in there. As long as you think you can handle it. She doesn't look like herself right now- but I promise you she'll be okay."

"I want to go in," Henry insisted. "I can handle it."

"I just don't want you to get too upset."

"Don't worry," David said, grabbing Henry's hand, "I'll go with him. He can do it."

Emma agreed and watched the two men make their way to Regina's room. As she did, she could feel her mother staring at her.

"Are you alright?" Snow asked when Emma turned to face her.

"I'm fine."

"Did one of the doctors check you out? Weren't you inhaling smoke, too?"

"Yeah," she said, "but I'm good, I promise. They gave me oxygen in the ambulance and I feel better."

"I got _so _scared when Ruby called," Snow said, eyes brimming with tears.

Her mother pulled her in tight and Emma couldn't deny the comfort she felt in her arms. She buried her face in Snow's shoulder, "It was really scary," she muttered.

"Regina will be just fine, so take a deep breath. Why don't we sit down for a minute while Henry and David are in there? You must be… exhausted."

Emma agreed. She was exhausted. At least, physically. Mentally, she couldn't bring herself to be exhausted. Not when she truly believed someone wanted to hurt Regina. She knew she needed to talk to Snow about it—amongst other important details about her life.

"Listen," she said, as she sat down next to her mother on the couch, "I need to talk to you about something."

"What is it?" Snow grabbed her daughter's hands.

"I haven't been completely honest about...about things with Regina."

"Emma, honey, I already know…"

"What?"

"You and Regina," Snow confirmed, "I know."

At first Emma was sure her mother must have misunderstood. But Snow's facial expression, one that was clearly trying to mask disapproval, told her otherwise.

"How long have you known?"

"About a month," Snow admitted.

"A month?! And you didn't...you just let me think you were clueless?"

"Well, you clearly weren't ready to tell me. I thought I had to respect that."

"How did you find out?"

"How long did you think an eleven year old could keep such a big secret?"

"Henry told you?"

Emma was shocked. Henry had been so excited to keep this particular secret. In fact, she would never forget the day they sat down to tell him. He even came up with a ridiculous code name, "Operation Python."

_"Python?" She had questioned. "Kid, why does it always have to be snakes? Are you trying to tell us you want a snake?" _

_"We are not getting a snake under any circumstance," Regina objected. _

_"Wait a second," Emma laughed, "is the royal queen, ruler of all the land, afraid of snakes?"_

_"Please," Regina scoffed. "I could fry any snake with the magic in my index finger alone."_

_"I don't need a snake," Henry interrupted them, grinning from ear to ear. "You two are clearly going to provide me with enough entertainment." _

It just didn't make sense to her that he would sabotage Operation Python and tell his grandparents.

"He didn't do it on purpose," Snow clarified. "Remember when you had that sinus infection last month?"

"Yeah," Emma nodded.

"Well, you weren't answering your phone so when I saw Henry at school I asked him how you were feeling. His response was, 'She's so sick that I wasn't even allowed in _their_ room this morning because Emma couldn't get out of bed.' It was just...it was really clear to me that you woke up, you know, in the _same_ bed as Regina."

"Jesus Christ," Emma muttered. She knew it wasn't Henry's fault-but that wasn't exactly how she wanted her mother to find out.

"Plus," Snow continued, "I could tell Henry knew he shouldn't have said it, because he got really nervous, wouldn't look at me and tried to change the subject-which confirmed what I thought I heard."

"I'm sorry- I didn't think you'd understand."

"I don't understand," Snow admitted. "I've been wrestling with it all month, Emma. I mean, I think I'm a pretty optimistic person, but... _Regina?_"

"She's not the Regina you knew." It was a line Emma realized sounded cliché—_you don't know her like I know her_-but it was the truth. And she didn't know how else to explain it.

"If this is for real between you guys..."

"It is," Emma interrupted her.

"Okay," Snow accepted. "Then I just need you to know that I'm going to need time, possibly a lot of time, to get used the idea."

"I understand," Emma said. And she did. She hadn't expected her mother to be happy about the news; she wasn't expecting a warm and welcoming reception. She had, quite honestly, expected more of a fight. And the part of her that craved her mother's approval, despite the 28 year absence, was still worried a fight was coming. "Are you mad at me?"

"Of course not," Snow said. "I love you so much. It's just worrisome. I'm _worried_. Regina still makes me very nervous."

"Does Dad know?"

"No," she said. "I honestly couldn't figure out how to tell him."

"Well," Emma began, "we're going to have to figure out how to tell him and fast. Because I need his help."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't think the fire was an accident. And I need him to...to look into it...an investigation, or whatever. Because I sure as hell am not in the right state of mind to take that on."

"Wait, slow down," Snow processed, "you think someone did this on purpose?"

"Regina is the most OCD person I know. Everything in that house is top-notch, including the alarm system. Our alarm should've gone off, but it didn't. We only got help because of Ruby. I would've been on the front lawn, without a phone and a barely breathing Regina, trying to figure out how to call for help. Plus, there is also the fact that there is no logical explanation for our kitchen bursting into flames in the middle of the night."

"You didn't have any candles or anything on?"

"No," Emma said, "and even if we did….I swear, it looked like something exploded."

"Maybe it was electrical," Snow suggested.

"Maybe," Emma said. "Or maybe it wasn't."

"Okay, I'll talk to him. We'll look into it."

"Henry could've been there," Emma said as she felt herself start to get choked up.

"I know," Snow comforted her, "if someone tried to hurt you, I _promise_ we'll figure it out."

They sat in silence and Emma leaned her head against her mother's shoulder.

Moments later, Henry burst through the door.

"She's awake!" He said excitedly. "Mom woke up!"

* * *

Emma entered the room and was happy to find Regina with her eyes wide open.

"Hey, gorgeous," she greeted as she pulled a chair right next to the bed. She kissed Regina on the forehead and intertwined their fingers.

"Hi," Regina replied, her voice still weak and scratchy.

"How do you feel?"

"Okay, I think. My chest hurts," she said. "What the hell happened?"

"The entire kitchen was on fire. It was...surreal. I found you in the library. Why were even you downstairs?"

"I couldn't sleep…I made tea and went to read."

"You didn't happen to leave the stove on, did you?"

"No," Regina said, after a moment of consideration. "I_ know_ I turned it off. I can…I can see myself doing it."

"I figured," Emma sighed. In a weird way, she had hoped it was Regina's fault. Not so she could blame her, but simply so she could stop worrying about other possibilities.

"How bad is the damage?"

"I honestly...I don't know...I was too busy trying to make sure_ you _weren't damaged."

"I don't care about the house," Regina clarified. "If you and Henry will permit me to use magic, it will take five minutes to recreate the kitchen. But some of Henry's stuff is downstairs and that is stuff I can't...I can't replace it."

"Relax…you just need to worry about taking care of yourself for a few days."

"I will," Regina promised.

"I'm going to send David to check out the damage in a little while though."

Regina ignored Emma's response and instead silently stared into her girlfriend's eyes. "What's wrong with you?"

Oh, I don't know," Emma replied, confused by the question, "you almost died in my arms tonight?"

"No, that's not it," Regina said, firmly. "You're not telling me something."

"I don't know what you're talking about?"

"Did something else happen that you don't want to tell me while I'm still in the hospital?"

Emma was taken aback by the accuracy of the accusation. She didn't want to tell Regina her theory until she had evidence or until Regina was feeling better. But she forgot how good this woman was at reading her mind.

"How the hell do you do that?" Emma questioned, knowing she wouldn't be able to get out of it.

"I know you too well, dear."

"Okay," Emma began, "I have a suspicion…"

"About what?"

"What if…what if the fire wasn't an accident?"

"I guess that's ... a possibility. I'm not exactly Miss Congeniality around here."

"But everything has been so quiet. There's nothing you're keeping from me, right? No fights with Rumple lately?"

"I haven't even seen him. He's barely left the house since Belle got her memory back."

"I just don't understand who would do this. Especially now—you've done everything and anything to prove how serious you are about changing. You're not even anywhere close to the same person. If someone wanted to hurt you, why the hell would they wait until months later?"

"It's difficult for some people to forget the past, I suppose."

"I know you're tired," Emma said, "but I need you to get angry. I don't like how apathetic you are about the fact that I'm almost positive someone tried to kill you tonight."

Regina looked down and Emma realized the insensitivity of her words. Regina had spent hours and hours in therapy with Dr. Hopper trying to make sure she _didn't_ get angry-that she knew how to control that very emotion. Emma knew that Regina's lack of response, her absence of anger, was actually a huge step for her.

"Sorry," Emma quickly said. "I didn't mean it like that."

"I know," Regina assured her, "it's fine."

"I'm just..._I'm _angry."

"Maybe your parents found out about us," Regina teased—in an attempt to lessen the tension.

"Uh," Emma said, "about that…. Snow found out...and she's telling my dad."

"Seriously? How did that go over?"

"Eh," Emma shrugged, "they'll deal with it. They'll have to, especially now."

"Especially now?"

"Well...um, we don't exactly have a place to stay, do we?"

"WHAT?" Regina jerked her entire body forward in response, almost ripping the IV out of her arm. "No, Emma. Absolutely, positively…no. I'll fix the house! Just let me use magic!"

"No, we can't just poof the house back to normal...not until we have time to figure out what happened. There could be evidence!"

"We can get a room at Grannys!"

"I'm not nursing you back to health in a hotel room. Dr. Whale said you're going to need a lot of rest and a lot of help."

"If I knew you would force me to stay in a tiny apartment with your parents I would have told you to just let me die."

"Okay, queen of sass. Calm yourself with the dramatics. It will be fine. In fact, I should probably go talk to them- tell them to make room for us."

"Emma...wait a second..."

"Regina, I beg of you," Emma pleaded, "just trust me on this—I need a place to take care of you…. it will only be a few days, I swear."

"I wasn't going to fight you on it," Regina smirked.

"Oh," Emma smiled back at her, "then continue."

I just...thank you, for saving my life, again- from a burning building, again."

"You're welcome."

"We've certainly come a long way since that first fire, haven't we?"

"That's an understatement," Emma agreed as leaned down and kissed her queen. "And thank you… for not dying."

* * *

"Charming, would you please wait for me?" Snow called as she followed her husband into what was left of Regina's house. He hadn't said much since she had told him about their daughter's relationship with their long-time enemy. But he did spring into action the second she had mentioned the fire might have been set on purpose.

"Snow," he turned around to face her, "You shouldn't be in here—it could be dangerous."

"If someone tried to hurt Emma," she argued, "you're not going to talk me out of helping."

"For the record, if that theory is true, I highly doubt it was _Emma_ they were trying to hurt."

"Well the entire town is aware that Emma lives here. Not to mention Henry. So, even if someone was after Regina…they still knowingly risked the lives of daughter and grandson. "

"I know," Charming gave in, realizing he was making things more difficult. "I'm sorry….I'm just…adjusting to recent information."

"I know, Snow acknowledged, "trust me, I know. But let's…let's just take things one step at a time. Right now we need to see if we can find anything that would explain the origins of the fire."

"Okay," he agreed. "I'm going to go look in the kitchen. You can check out the library…Emma said that's where Regina was."

Snow began to walk through the hallway when she noticed that the alarm system was right next to the front door; it also appeared to still be intact. She walked over and stared at it, not sure exactly what she was even looking for. It seemed like Emma was right; the system was turned off. She opened the cover, hoping she could find the power source or on-switch.

She gasped out loud at what she had found instead: two tiny red wires had clearly been snipped by a pair of scissors, rendering the alarm useless.

"Charming!" She screamed, desperately wanting someone else to see her discovery.

But she already knew what was right in front of her. She knew that her daughter was right.

Someone in Storybrook made this happen.

Now…now Snow White was pissed.


	3. Prints

**Thanks again everyone :) The chapters just keep getting longer, lol. Enjoy!**

* * *

"Is there anyone you think would want to hurt her?"

Emma resented the condescending nature of the question her father asked—it was as if he wanted to highlight the fact that the list of potential suspects was infinite.

She sat at the kitchen table in her former apartment. Not a single member of the Charming family had been to sleep in the past 24 hours. Except, of course, for Henry. Snow had called in sick to work—but Emma sent Henry to school in order to provide him with some sense of normalcy.

"_Everyone _in this godforsaken town," she spat back at him, "including the two of you."

Charming resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "I'm trying to help you…_and her_."

"Emma," Snow cautioned, trying to mitigate a delicate situation, "I'm just as upset as you are, trust me. But you need to calm down if we want to figure this out."

"I know that," she muttered. "But I honestly have no clue who would pull a stunt like this."

"You're _sure_ Regina hasn't pissed anyone off recently?" Her father asked. "She does have, um, a way with words?"

"Regina has been minding her own business for months. She says hello to people who cross her path but otherwise she keeps to herself. All she's wanted since the Cora situation is some goddamn peace and quiet—so she can just…be with Henry. She hasn't done _anything_ wrong."

"So, I guess we have to assume it's someone with a pretty big grudge from the past then," Charming decided. "But I still don't know how to narrow down that list."

"It almost feels like someone waited for it to be quiet on purpose," Snow theorized. "Like they waited until Regina finally had her guard down."

"Of course," Emma said, sarcastically. "Because that's how this works, apparently. Did anyone else notice that every time Regina does something good, she's punished? She saves us from a portal, she gets accused of murder. She turns her entire life around, she gets her house set on fire."

"She saves my life, she loses Daniel," Snow added, almost inaudibly.

"I think this family knows better than most that sometimes bad things happen for seemingly no justifiable reason at all," Charming said.

Emma appreciated the words of wisdom but felt a little too much like a teenager being told she was acting overly-emotional. She knew that bad things happened to good people- she also knew there weren't many people who would consider Regina a good person. But _she _did. She hadn't expected Regina's road to redemption to be easy or smooth, but this…this was just getting out of hand.

"I have to go," Emma declared as she looked at her watch. "I promised Henry I'd pick him up from school. He wants me to take him to get Regina a get-well basket."

"And I should go back to the house," Charming said. "We wanted to tell you about the alarm right away, so I never got a good look at the kitchen."

"I'll come with you," Snow offered.

"Someone has to stay here," Emma reminded them. "Regina's asleep but I don't want her to be alone... considering the circumstances."

"Okay," Snow agreed, "I'll stay then."

* * *

Snow sat in her apartment staring into space. Much like Regina, all she really wanted was peace and quiet.

In fact, her intense desire for a prolonged sense of calm was exactly why she had convinced her husband not to travel back to their kingdom, their world.

She was rather content with the notion of living in Storybrook with her friends and family. She knew she would be happy to spend her days waking up in Charming's arms, teaching her students, bonding with her daughter and grandson, and hanging out with her friends at Grannys. She was, frankly, over sword-fights and ogres and castles and the like.

Her day-dream was abruptly ended by the sound of two knocks against the door.

"Ruby," Snow greeted as she opened up, genuinely happy to see a friendly face. "Come in. Can I get you anything?"

"No, I'm fine," Ruby smiled, "thanks."

"I should be thanking you," Snow said, embracing Ruby in a hug. "Thank God you were there…to call for help."

"I'm just glad that they got out in time. How is Emma doing?"

"She's alright, but really shaken up….and Regina is upstairs recovering."

"Wait a second," Ruby paused, unsure she heard correctly, "Regina's staying here?"

"Henry and Emma need a place to look after her for now."

"Right," Ruby nodded. "Well, for Henry's sake, I'm glad she's okay, too."

Snow often wondered how the rest of the town felt about Regina's redemption—no one ever really spoke of it out loud. These days she also couldn't help but wonder how they would react to Emma and Regina as a couple. She was thankful she had time to wrap her head around the idea before every last citizen of Storybrook was talking about it.

"I wanted to ask you something," Ruby continued. "Is there any truth to the rumor going around that someone _set_ the fire?"

"How did people find that out?"

"You know how it is around here, everyone talks. I think people started to suspect it when they saw you guys hanging around Regina's house like you were looking for something. Is it…is it true?"

"Can this stay between you and me?"

"Of course."

"All we know right now is that someone sabotaged their alarm so it wouldn't go off. That would lead us to believe that someone probably set the fire, too."

"I think...I think I have to tell you something."

Snow noticed Ruby nervously twirling her hair and was concerned about where this conversation was going. "What is it?"

"Well, it might be nothing. But it also might be something. I'm hesitant because...I don't want to start false accusations again...especially after the whole Cora-kidnapping-Archie thing...but... the other night when I was working at Grannys...I think I may have overheard something."

"You can tell me," Snow encouraged.

"It was one of those nights where it felt like the whole town was there—and everyone was just hanging out, you know? Leroy, Whale, Jefferson—I mean _everyone_ was there."

"Okay.."

"I don't know how the conversation started, but Jefferson was going on and on about how just because we sent Cora through a portal, doesn't mean she won't find her way back here. And someone else, I forget who, said that Cora has no reason to come back here at this point; Emma is always going to protect Regina and Cora knows she won't win."

"Right," Snow listened intently.

"But Jefferson was saying that Cora is a determined woman-and that she might eventually come up with a new plan. He said that we don't even realize how many ways there are to travel between worlds. And then….then he said that the only way to make sure Cora never comes back is….well, if Regina is… _gone_.'"

"Oh," Snow processed the information.

"I'm not saying he did it. I don't even know if he was serious or if the people he was talking to took him seriously. I just know that I heard it and that...people might not be afraid of Regina anymore...but they're definitely still afraid of Cora."

"Jefferson _did _kidnap me….and Emma for that matter. But it seems weird, because…I mean, he has his daughter now. And I'm pretty sure that's all he ever wanted."

"Maybe someone in this town believes that theory though: that we won't truly be safe while Regina is still here."

"Thank you, Ruby. I'm glad you told me."

"Can I ask you something else? Do you really believe it? That Regina has changed?"

"I believe Emma," Snow said. "So, I guess, I have to believe she's right about Regina."

"It would be nice," Ruby said, "wouldn't it?"

"Yeah," Snow agreed, "it would be nice."

* * *

Emma anxiously waited for Henry to exit the school building. She had walked from the apartment and the fresh air and time alone with her thoughts was exactly what she needed. She loved her parents, and was so grateful that they were willing to help, but she would be lying if she said they didn't overwhelm her.

Now, she was just excited to see her son. And to bring him back home to Regina.

"Hey, kid," she flashed him a grin as he approached her. "How was your day?"

"It was alright," Henry told her, as they began to walk, completely in sync. "But I was a little distracted."

"I know," Emma sympathized, "I'm sure you were. It's hard to think about anything but your mom getting better."

"How is she?"

"Tired; she's just been sleeping…so I promise you didn't miss anything."

"I guess that's good."

"It is," Emma reassured him, "Dr. Whale said so."

"Some of the kids at school were saying that someone wanted to kill her and that's why the house went on fire."

Emma stopped walking and turned to face him. "Kids at school were talking about it?"

"Yeah," Henry confirmed.

"And they said that? To your face?"

"No, but I overheard."

Emma had sent Henry to school so that he could be spared the details…not so that he would have to endure his classmates whispering about their chaotic night behind his back. She realized she was naive to think the details wouldn't find him, one way or the other. She was furious with herself; she wanted to be the one to tell him.

"Well, we are considering the possibility that someone may have wanted to hurt her."

"Oh," Henry said, looking at the ground. It was clearly not the answer he wanted to hear.

"Your grandpa is looking into it though. He's at the house right now trying to figure it all out. We'll find out if it's true."

"Alright," her son acknowledged.

"You okay?"

"It's just that she's been really good lately…to everyone."

"I know, kid. She has."

"I want her to be happy."

Emma's heart broke for her son. And, even more so, she knew exactly how he felt.

"She is though. You want to know why? Because she's got you."

"And you," Henry added.

"Yeah," Emma said, "but you're still her favorite."

"I know what I want to put in the get-well basket!"

"What?"

Henry pulled a list out of his pocket. Emma glanced at it and realized just how well Henry knew his mother. He knew her favorite flowers, her favorite candy, her favorite movies.

"This is awesome, she'll love it," Emma said when she was done reading. "Let's get going—the faster we get this done, the faster we get home to your mom."

"Wait a minute," Henry looked up at Emma, "if we're both here, and Grandpa is at the house…. does that mean she's alone with Grandma?"

"Yup," Emma laughed.

"Well then we _really_ better get this done quickly."

* * *

Snow heard a loud thump echo throughout the apartment. She jumped up from the couch and sprinted to Emma's room.

"Regina," she gasped as she took in the sight of her step-mother lying on the floor in her pajamas, "are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Regina insisted. She attempted to sit up, but gave up after realizing she lacked the upper-body strength. "Where's Emma?"

"What happened?" Snow asked as she knelt down on the floor to meet Regina's eye-level.

Regina didn't want to tell Snow what had happened—but she knew the woman wouldn't leave until she did. "I have to...I have to go to the bathroom and I thought I could walk there myself."

"You're not supposed to get out of bed!"

"My legs still work, you know," Regina snapped. "I'm not completely useless."

Snow often heard how Regina spoke to Emma. Though she was still sarcastic at times, the tone was soft and even unexpectedly warm. And yet, with her, Regina still used the deep, dark, evil-queen voice that made her shudder with fear.

"And yet it appears as though you couldn't even stand on them," Snow retorted.

"It's not a big deal…I just got light-headed when I stood up."

"You haven't really eaten, your blood sugar is probably low. Plus the medication..."

"Will Emma be back soon?"

"Are you going to hang out on the floor until she gets here?"

"Maybe," Regina considered. "But you have _yet _to tell me where she is."

"She went to get Henry from school...and I know they had one stop to make on the way home."

Regina sighed heavily as she rubbed her fingers against her temples.

"Regina," Snow said, "I can walk you to the bathroom."

The offer was met with silence.

Snow was desperate for this woman to let her guard down—she wanted to see the Regina that Emma saw. "You don't want me to help you, do you?"

"Not particularly," Regina confirmed.

"Oh, come_ on._"

"It's humiliating."

"More humiliating than being stuck on the floor until Emma gets home?"

"I'm currently weighing the options."

"Well, sorry…but I can't leave you here. Emma will come home and murder me. Unless that's your plan," Snow teased.

"It's actually not a bad one," Regina said, tilting her head slightly to the left.

"Would you just let me help you? I swear I won't tell anyone. It can be our secret."

Regina's already pale face lost the rest of its color as Snow realized the weight of what she had just said. Both women immediately thought back to the last promise Snow had made—the broken-promise that started it all.

"I'm sorry," Snow quickly said, immediately regretting her word choice. She was expecting Regina to annihilate her for the error. But, oddly enough, she watched as the brunette's entire facial expression relaxed.

"Okay," Regina caved, "I accept your offer."

Snow pulled Regina off the floor and they walked, arm in arm, down the hallway.

"Thank you," Regina said when they reached the bathroom, "I can take it from here."

"I'll wait…just in case."

Regina knew it was useless to argue, so she agreed.

Moments later, she emerged and the two women walked back to Emma's room.

"You tell no one," Regina said, as she got herself settled back into bed, "_ever_."

"I don't even know what you're talking about," Snow smiled. "I've been on the couch this entire time."

* * *

Prince Charming stood in the hallway of Regina's house, not sure what his next move would be. He didn't want to admit to anyone that he had no idea what the hell he was doing. He was a lot of things, but a detective was certainly not one of them. He had gone through the entire kitchen three times, and he couldn't seem to come up with anything useful. He was clueless as to what the cause of the fire was; he just knew there was a lot of ash.

Still, he knew his family was relying on him. More specifically, for the first time, his _daughter_ was relying on him. It hurt him profusely that he never had the chance to make Emma his little girl. He had wanted to watch his daughter grow up—to spoil her with love and everything she could have ever wanted. Instead, his daughter was a grown woman who was just as stubborn as her mother—and it seemed that the only thing she wanted was the evil queen.

But, despite his reservations about this 'new' Regina, he wanted to prove himself to Emma—he wanted to prove that she could rely on him, just like Snow could. That he would do anything for her, just like he would do anything for Snow. And, truth be told, he felt like he was failing.

So far, there had only really been one piece of evidence—the alarm. He walked back over to it and stood straight in front of it. He stared at the machine, hoping it would magically tell him who was behind this.

And then, Charming had an idea. Maybe the machine _could_ tell him who was behind it. If, by chance, that someone left fingerprints behind.

He knew there was a fingerprint kit at the Sheriff's station. And he was going to figure out how to use it.

After a trip back to the station and an extensive internet search on how to retrieve fingerprints, Charming stood in front of the alarm yet again. He followed the instructions step by step, not wanting to do anything that could possibly ruin the process.

From what he could tell, there were three sets of prints on the cover of the alarm. His first thought was that Emma, Regina and Henry had all likely touched it at some point. But, upon second thought, he realized the alarm was a little too high up for Henry too reach. And the fingerprints were all too big to be one of Henry's tiny fingers.

He smiled to himself—proud of what he had found. Someone else touched this alarm. And that someone was likely the culprit.

Charming knew Storybrook didn't exactly have a database he could compare the print to nor would he be able to justify fingerprinting every last person in town. But he still felt accomplished.

He knew it was better than nothing.

It was, at the very least, a start.


	4. CSI: Storybrook

**Thanks for the follows and reviews. This chapter gives me Charming-Swan-Mills family feels. I hope you enjoy :)**

* * *

Henry ran through the door of the Charming's apartment excitedly announcing his presence, "We're home!"

Emma followed closely behind him carrying the giant basket they had filled for Regina.

"Hey," Snow welcomed them both with an inviting smile. "Got your gift?"

"And then some… right, kid?" She had admittedly let her son go a little crazy at the store—but she figured it was one of the best reasons she ever had to abuse her credit card.

"Is she up?" Henry asked, anxious to see his mom and, even more so, to see her reaction to their shopping spree.

"I think she is actually," Snow said.

"Good," Henry grabbed the basket out of Emma's hands and took off down the hall.

"Well, he's excited," Snow laughed as she watched him fly by her.

"I'm just glad he's distracted, honestly. He found out someone's after Regina because kids were talking about it at school."

"That's…that's horrible. How'd he take it?"

"I mean, you know—not that great. He's worried about her."

"Ruby came by earlier and she was asking a lot of questions as well."

"So I guess everyone knows then," Emma sighed. "But more importantly, how is Regina doing?"

"She seems alright—she slept—then I heard her stirring around a little."

Snow so badly wanted to tell her daughter what had happened. That Regina Mills, though begrudgingly so, had allowed Snow White to help her. But Snow knew she couldn't share the story—she wasn't about to make the same mistake twice. This time, Regina's secret was completely safe with her.

"When I went to check on her though, she just wanted you to be home. You should hurry up and go watch Henry watch her open all her stuff."

* * *

Emma walked into her room to the sight of Regina repeatedly kissing Henry's head.

"I love it," Regina exclaimed as she sifted through the basket. "Thank you so much, Henry."

"Emma helped, too" he said.

"Thanks, Em," Regina turned her attention to the blonde who was now standing right next to the bed.

"Listen, he had very specific ideas about what he wanted to get you—I was merely the supervisor."

Emma wanted their son to get the credit he deserved. It was obvious he never, even for a moment, stopped loving his mom. But he had come a long way in learning trust her again—to encourage her to be better and acknowledge when she was. Today was one of those days Emma was particularly proud of him.

"Henry, you really thought of everything, didn't you?" Regina pulled out a comfortable new sweatshirt, slippers and teddy bear. "This is the most thoughtful thing anyone has ever done for me."

Emma felt indescribably sad watching Regina hug the teddy bear-because she knew that it wasn't an exaggeration. This probably truly was the most thoughtful thing anyone had ever done for her; she couldn't help but wonder if this woman had ever been given a stuffed animal in her life before today.

Emma made a mental note to surprise her girlfriend with presents more often. She had a lifetime of neglect to make up for. But she was confident she could do it—especially with Henry's help.

"How do you feel?" Emma asked.

"A lot better now that I have all this candy," Regina replied, proudly holding up a box of chocolates.

Emma knew she would have to wait to get a real answer because Regina would never reveal weakness around Henry. Especially not now.

"Maybe you should eat some real food first? Save the candy for dessert?"

"Look who is suddenly all concerned with nutrition. I thought your definition of dinner was Poptarts?"

Henry snorted in response to the witty-remark. "That's true."

"You're _really_ not letting that one go, are you?"

"Not anytime soon, dear. But I think I may actually be hungry for the first time all day. It must be something about the company that's lifted my spirits."

"Can we watch a movie while we eat?" Henry asked.

"Don't you have homework to get done, kid?"

"I think it would be quite appropriate for Henry to have a night off from homework after the ordeal his family has been through, don't you think?"

Henry grinned in shock and confusion at Regina's response.

"That's fine by me," Emma said. "I was just trying to be the responsible one in case the meds are clouding your typically strict maternal disposition."

"Will I get in trouble?" Henry sheepishly asked.

"No," Regina promised. "I'd be happy to send you a note that says you were unable to complete your homework due to your house bursting into flames. Any teacher who has an issue with that excuse can take it up with me."

Emma burst out laughing. She was more than happy to see Regina acting like herself tonight.

* * *

Charming entered the house and wanted nothing more than a shower. And for this never-ending-day to be over. "Hey," he greeted his wife.

"Hi," Snow jumped up to meet him. "How'd it go?"

"I still can't make much of the wreckage, but I did find something."

"What?"

"A fingerprint—on the alarm."

"You did?" Snow's entire face lit up at the prospect.

"Three sets of them, actually. Regina and Emma's, probably. And a third."

"Henry?"

"Nope, too big. Not sure exactly what I'm going to do next….but, yeah."

"Ruby came to see me today," Snow blurted out. "She said that Jefferson has been telling people Storybrook isn't safe with Regina around because Cora will eventually want to come back."

"That sounds a lot like motivate."

"I don't know…I mean, it's Jefferson we're talking about. He's insane."

"Um, isn't that _exactly_ the point? It does take a particularly insane person to plan this."

"I meant that he very well could have just been rambling. And everyone knows that he's insane, so I'm not sure I believe anyone would take him all that seriously?"

"Still," Charming thought, "I could bring him down to the station and talk to him—see what he has to say for himself."

"I guess—you could ask him exactly who he was telling his theories to—and tell him someone might have taken him literally."

"Oh," he added, "and I saw this thing online about how you can give someone a glass of water during an interrogation and then get their fingerprint off of it. That way I could compare his to the one on the alarm."

"You found this online?" His wife asked, skeptically. "What were you googling? How to be a detective?"

"Something like that."

"I'm not sure how I feel about you turning this into an episode of CSI: Storybrook," she teased. "But I trust you. I know you'll figure it out."

"Emma's with Regina and Henry? I want to give her an update on everything."

"Listen, I was thinking," Snow lowered her voice, "maybe we shouldn't give Emma all the details just yet."

"What are you talking about?"

"I don't know if it's the best idea to tell her about the fingerprint—or about what Jefferson said."

"Why the hell not?" Charming was sleep deprived, irritated and pushed to his breaking point—and the_ one_ thing keeping him motivated, that was preventing him from falling onto the floor and giving up, was the mental picture of sharing his success with Emma. Now, for some unknown reason, his wife was suggesting he wouldn't be able to.

"She's going crazy over this. I'm afraid if we tell her she will literally go to Jefferson's house and rip his fingerprints off to figure out if he's guilty."

"So, you want to lie to our daughter?"

"No," Snow defended herself. "I'm just saying…maybe we should wait until we have more information-so we can give her concrete facts. There is no point in getting her all worked up before we actually know anything. She wanted_ us_ to investigate for a reason—because she's overwhelmed and she needs to focus on Regina and Henry."

"What do you propose we tell her when she inevitably asks us what progress we made today?"

"I think we can tell her we found out that some people view Regina as a threat because of Cora? Like you said, that's a pretty good motive. We'll just leave out the details."

"And what should I tell her I did _all day_ at the house?"

"Charming," Snow reasoned, "that house is a mess—you say you were cleaning up and looking for clues…but you haven't found any yet."

"Fine," he conceded. He wasn't happy about it at all, but he was just too tired to fight. And he knew that when Snow had made a decision like this, there was simply no turning back.

* * *

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Emma screeched after her parents had finished talking. "That's such crap."

"Language," Snow gently warned. Her daughter was taking the news of a possible motive just as well as she expected.

"No," Emma fought back, "we pushed Cora through a portal—after making it abundantly clear she has no reason to ever, ever come back here. She knows that we could've killed her and we didn't—she's _not_ going to come back because she knows we won't show that sort of mercy twice."

"I didn't say it was logical, sweetheart—and I didn't say it was right," Snow reminded her. "I'm just telling you what we heard."

"Can you believe this shit?" No one knew exactly who Emma was addressing the question to. The sheriff was pacing back and forth. Charming stood next to her while Regina and Snow both sat on the sofa.

If Regina was being honest with herself, she felt slightly out of place. She was in the Charming family apartment—sitting on their couch, next to Snow White, in her pajamas. She was listening to them discuss how they had gotten rid of her mother—a plan she had actively taken part in, but tried her best not to re-live. But Regina also knew she _wasn't _out of place—because Emma was here and Emma gave her a true sense of belonging.

"I mean," the former queen said, speaking for the first time since the conversation started, "it's sort of understandable, I suppose."

"Understandable? It's understandable?" Emma's face was flushed red with rage.

"No one in this town is particularly attached to me—and they want to protect themselves from my mother."

"First of fucking all—even if _they_ aren't attached to you, they should know other people, like me and Henry, are."

"They _don't_ know that you have any sort of attachment to me besides Henry and they probably assume he is better off in your care, anyway."

"Maybe you were downstairs the night of the fire because you just opened the door for whoever did this. That's how you're acting right now."

"_Emma_," Snow scolded, shocked at her daughter's behavior.

"Stop," Regina said, "just please stop begging me to want revenge. I'm trying so hard not to." She wasn't raising her voice in the slightest—in fact, her words sounded shaky and almost insecure.

Emma stopped pacing as the room grew silent at Regina's admission. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I keep pushing you. It just makes me…I'm furious."

"It makes me mad, too, okay? _I'm_ the reason that you were in danger and that Henry could've been in danger, too. If you think that doesn't make me want to blow something up, or turn someone into dust with the flick of my wrist, you are mistaken. "

"I'm sorry," Emma repeated.

"Regina," Snow said, quietly—breaking the tension. "I know…I think it's…" She trailed off mid-sentence, suddenly unsure if she had the right to be involving herself.

"Go ahead," Regina said, granting her permission to continue.

"I know you need to…control the amount of anger you feel about this…but no one expects you to sit here and take abuse. I think in this case it's acceptable to be angry—and everyone….we'll all be here to keep an eye on any potential wrist-flicking."

"Okay," Regina accepted the support.

Emma sat down on the couch in between her mother and girlfriend. She put her hand on Regina's thigh and gave her a reassuring look—a look that showed regret for her behavior.

"What do we do _now_?" Emma then asked the group, bringing them all back on subject.

"I want to let the firemen come into the house," Charming explained. "I've kept them out so we could try to figure it out on our own. But...I don't know how to determine the cause of the fire without them."

"What if the firefighters set the fire? Or what if they're in on it?" Emma questioned. "I don't know who the hell to trust anymore."

"I'll oversee the entire thing," her father promised. "Is that alright with you?"

"Yeah," Emma agreed. "I guess."

"Regina?" Charming asked.

"What?"

"It's _your_ house—are _you_ okay with firemen traipsing through it?"

"Oh," Regina was surprised he was consulting her at all. "Yes, it's fine. I want to find out what happened. Can you just make sure…that if anything of Henry's is there…that nothing happens to it?"

"Of course," Charming agreed.

"I wish I could go to the house with you," she continued, "but I couldn't even walk down the hall this morning."

"I'll make sure nobody touches anything they shouldn't be."

"Thank you."

"You should go to back to sleep," Emma looked at Regina's tired eyes with concern.

"I think the three of you are the ones who could use some sleep at this point."

"How are we going to handle the…um, sleeping arrangements?" Snow looked around the room.

"I can sleep on the couch," Regina offered.

"You're not sleeping on the couch with your half-functioning lungs," Emma said authoritatively.

"Well, Henry is occupying one side of your of bed."

"And you'll occupy the other side of it. I'll sleep on the floor. You're not sleeping on the couch and I'm not leaving you alone."

"That sounds like a good idea," Snow encouraged.

Emma stood up and helped Regina off the couch. The two of them slowly made their way to Emma's room.

"Just imagine how she would've reacted if we dropped names," Snow said to her husband once they were alone again. "Jefferson would already be dead."

"Regina was surprisingly…"

"I know," Snow understood what he meant before he had time to finish the sentence. "And I don't think it's an act."

"It doesn't seem like one. Let's just hope it's a permanent transformation. "

"Hey," Emma said, walking back into the kitchen.

"Do you guys need anything?" Her mom instantly replied.

"No, we're good—I just wanted to say thanks…for doing all of this…and for letting us stay here. I know that it's cramped and I know that you aren't exactly fans of hers…"

"You can stay here as long as you want whenever you want," Charming assured her, "no matter the circumstances."

"And, for the record," Snow added, "my necessary adjustment time-it _might_ be shorter than I thought."

Emma hadn't been overly affectionate with her parents since the curse was broken. But she couldn't resist kissing them both on the cheek before heading into her room.

* * *

"Are you awake?" Emma asked from the floor, as she stared up at the ceiling.

"Yeah," Regina admitted. "I slept all day—now I can't sleep."

"Can you tell me _honestly_ how much pain you're in?"

She heard nothing in response.

"He's asleep, Gina. He's not going to wake up mid-answer."

"I just keep losing my breath—and it hurts sometimes when I breathe deep."

"So, in other words, it hurts a lot."

"It's on and off."

"And when it's on?"

"Yeah," she finally confessed. "It hurts a lot."

"I'm sorry."

"But I wasn't even lying to Henry—I swear when he was looking at me like that, watching me open that basket, it didn't hurt at all."

"I believe it."

"He really came up with the idea himself?"

"I wish I could take credit but it sincerely was all him. He even had a list of things to get you-I think he wrote it up at school. It was freaken adorable."

"Do you still have it? The list?"

"I think it's in my jacket pocket, yeah."

"Can I have it? I want to save it."

Emma sat up. She leaned her head on the mattress and grabbed Regina's hand. "You're like… the cutest mom, ever. Did you know that?"

"Are you _sure _you can't fit up here?" Regina asked, happy to have Emma's face merely inches from her own.

"Unless we want to squish our son, I think I'm stuck here for tonight. But I actually sort of like the current view. "

Regina's only response was to lovingly kiss Emma goodnight.

* * *

The next morning, Snow gently knocked on her daughter's door.

"Come in," Henry answered.

Snow saw her grandson tying his sneakers, all ready for to leave for school.

"I thought we could walk to school together," she told him. "And I made waffles."

"Awesome," Henry replied.

It was then Snow noticed her daughter—sound asleep in a peculiar position. She was sitting up; her back was against the wall, head on the mattress pressed against Regina's, their hands interlocked.

"I know," Henry said, noticing the look on his grandmother's face, "they were like that when I woke up. Should I get Emma up? She can't be comfortable."

"No, that's okay. Let her sleep. Go get your waffles while they're still hot."

Snow scooped her daughter up in her arms up, walked to the other side of the bed and gently placed her down next to Regina. She was desperate not to wake either of them up, completely sure this was an invasion of their privacy.

She sort of wished she hadn't seen this; it was going to be hard for her to be against something that was just so damn cute.


	5. Turned Tables

**As usual, thanks to all the readers :) This chapter will provide some answers and also some badass Regina. Things will start to pick up from there. Oh and the scene is italics is Regina's dream-just to be 100% clear! Enjoy!**

* * *

"There better be a damn good reason why you brought me here and kept me waiting for forty-five minutes," Jefferson said as Charming walked into the interrogation room.

"Oh, there is," Charming promised, quite content with himself. He had left Jefferson alone in the room, with the heat blasting, while he watched from the other side. He was determined to only begin the questioning after Jefferson had helped himself to the glass of water left on the table. And the plan had gone exactly how he had wanted.

"Let's discuss the threats you've been making against Regina," he began.

"Threats?"

"Don't play dumb with me," Charming said, confidently. "I have multiple witnesses."

"Witnesses who claim I've been threatening Regina?"

"Have you _not _been saying this town would be better off without her?"

"That's not a threat. That's a _fact_. And I'm curious to know why you suddenly disagree."

"She's my grandson's mother. And someone set her house on fire while my daughter was asleep upstairs. So, other than being against arson in general, I'd say I have a pretty good reason to disagree with you."

"I didn't set Regina's house on fire," Jefferson rebutted. "Though I'm certainly not going to pretend to be particularly upset by the fact that someone else did."

"Why should I believe you?"

"I have an alibi."

"You have an alibi for the middle of the night? That's possibly more suspicious than you not having one at all."

"Grace was sick with the flu. If you are suggesting I brought my own child to the emergency room in order to prove to you that I didn't try to kill Regina, then this interrogation just took on an entirely new level of insulting."

"I was at the emergency room that night. I don't remember seeing you."

"Well, you can check with Dr. Whale or one of the multiple nurses who treated her."

"You can be sure I will," Charming promised, as he leaned on the table. "And by the way, even if you were there...it doesn't mean you weren't involved. Or that your views on Regina didn't influence someone else to take matters into their own hands."

"I can't be held responsible for what other people do with the information I provide them. It's irrelevant to me that your daughter is playing house with the evil-queen. It, unfortunately for all of us, doesn't change what Cora is capable of. Or anyone else who wants to jump through a portal to this world, for that matter. All of you underestimate the endless amount of danger this town faces."

"Who did you tell?" Charming asked, trying his best to ignore Jefferson's digs against his daughter.

"Anyone who was willing to listen."

"Anyone seemed particularly disturbed by it?"

"No one that stands out in my mind. Sorry to disappoint. But since you have no actual authority to keep me here, I think I'll be on my way now."

Charming didn't know what else to do. Technically, Jefferson was right. And he already had the finger-print, so he decided it wasn't worth the argument. "Fine, go."

"Oh, before I do," Jefferson said, "just so we're clear: if I had _wanted _to kill Regina-I would've succeeded. You're looking for an amateur-someone who didn't think through the plan all that hard. "

"Thanks for your input- but I've got it under control."

"Yeah, clearly," Jefferson said sarcastically. "You seem _super_ close to figuring it all out."

"Good-bye, Jefferson. Thanks for _all _the help and cooperation."

"Anytime," he said with a grin, as he walked out of the station.

* * *

Charming watched as Storybrook's firefighters rummaged through Regina's kitchen. He kept offering to help, but they had refused him; it wasn't allowed, according to 'protocol.' So, after an hour and a half of waiting around, he was starting to get restless.

"How's it going so far?" He asked, as he saw the Chief approach him.

"Well, we actually found something that...we, um, we need to show you."

"What is it?"

"Follow me," the Chief instructed, "I want you to see for yourself."

Charming walked into the kitchen and trailed the Chief to the middle of the room—they stopped in front of Regina's kitchen table, which was lying on its side.

"We didn't really notice until we started cleaning up all the ashes. But everything in this entire room was burnt—except, for one thing."

"The table," Charming observed.

"Right," the Chief confirmed. "Except…that's obviously not logical since the table is made of wood. It's impossible without…"

"Magic?" Charming offered.

"That would explain it—if, say, someone put a spell on the table before setting the fire."

"Why would someone be worried enough about the table to save it from burning?"

"That's exactly what I thought—so we flipped the table over. And, um, it appears someone carved a message into it. You can see it from the other side."

Charming slowly walked over to the other side of the table—he had a sick feeling in his stomach, the sort of feeling you get when you know that something is about to go terribly wrong. Sure enough, just as the Chief had promised, there was a message scratched into the middle of the surface.

It read, **"**_**RIP Savior**_**." **

"Emma," Charming gasped out loud as he digested the meaning of the words in front of him. "Someone was after Emma."

* * *

"Snow?" Charming shouted as he entered his apartment. "Emma?"

He was desperate to speak to his family—desperate to share this surprising, and confusing, development.

But no one responded to his call—and he found that all of the rooms in the apartment were empty—except for one.

"Where's Snow?" Charming asked, as he entered Regina's room without bothering to knock. He was out of breath and sweating.

"At work? Because it's the middle of the day?" Regina was baffled by the man standing in front of her, who looked uncharacteristically disheveled. In fact, his disturbed appearance was so off-putting that she didn't even bother to yell at him for his lack of manners. "Are you...alright?"

"Where's Emma?" He barked back at her.

"She just left a minute ago-she went to the grocery store. Did something happen?"

"Yeah," Charming confirmed. "Something happened."

"What's wrong?"

"It's not you!" He shouted, the vein in his forehead visibly popping out.

"What?" Regina asked, trying to make sense of the ranting.

"It's not you they were after, it's _Emma_."

"Excuse me?" She felt every fiber in her body freeze up at the suggestion. She didn't, wouldn't, couldn't believe it was possible.

"Emma," Charming said, "the house-the fire-it wasn't about you. It was about Emma."

"No," Regina insisted, as her heart sank. "That doesn't...that doesn't make any sense."

"Yeah, tell me about it—it doesn't make sense at all."

"Who would? Who the hell would want to hurt Emma? Are you _sure _about this?"

"I'm positive," Charming swore—and she could tell by the fear in his voice that he was serious.

"Take me there," Regina demanded, as she abruptly sat up.

"Where?"

"Take me to the house. I want to see whatever it is you found for myself. I want to help."

"No," he rebutted, "you can hardly move—you said so yourself last night."

"Do you think I care about my ability to stand or walk or breathe for that matter?" Regina shrieked. "This isn't a game anymore. I'm helping you figure this out. You barely have any clue what the hell you're doing. This is Emma we're talking about. I can't take a chance on your incompetency."

"I am not incompetent. Do you not remember when I managed to take your kingdom from underneath you?" Charming meant to mutter the last part under his breath—but the statement did not go unnoticed.

"Yes... and need I remind _you _that while you were blissfully planning a wedding I was, unbeknownst to you, planning a dark curse that went on to last twenty-eight years? Now which one of us do you think is more likely to outsmart whoever did this?"

"Okay, fine," Charming conceded—knowing it was far better to have Regina on his side than not. "But that doesn't mean you're in any condition to leave this apartment."

"If you think I won't use magic to get myself there- you're wrong. And that will take up way more of my severely limited energy than you simply driving me over there right this instant."

"Alright," he agreed, sensing the determination in her voice. "I'll take you. But we better leave now before anyone gets home and finds out I agreed to this. And you're not staying long."

"Let's go," Regina ignored his terms and conditions, simply grateful to have secured a ride. Using all the adrenaline currently pumping through her system, she managed to lift herself out of bed and stand up on her own.

"Um," Charming paused, "are you going to get dressed?"

"Do you have a problem with the way I'm dressed?"

Regina stood, leaning against the wall in her sweats; she had no make on and her hair was pulled back in a short pony-tail.

"No...it's not a problem. It's just not usually how you leave the house."

"Well, I can't get dressed by myself. And you're certainly not helping me. That would just cross over a few too many levels of bizarre."

"That's something we can agree on."

"I think today we have more than just one thing to agree on."

* * *

Regina hadn't seen the damage inflicted on her house. The night of the fire she didn't regain consciousness until she was at the hospital and she went straight home with Emma when she was discharged.

Even though she knew she could use magic to fix it, or create an even bigger one for that matter, seeing the destruction up close was overwhelming. She wanted to cry. Not for the loss of physical objects-but because of the dramatic turn of events that had occurred. She could accept, and deal with, the reality of someone wanting to hurt her—but someone wanting to hurt Emma was an entirely different story.

Emma was the White Knight, the savior, the one who always knew right from wrong. Emma didn't deserve this.

She felt pangs in her chest with each breath she took—her legs felt like jelly beneath her. She missed the feeling of standing tall and walking with confidence.

"Come to the kitchen," Charming instructed her.

She limped behind him at a painfully slow pace. He looked at her awkwardly, not sure if he should offer help. He began to approach her—but she wasn't interested in his assistance. "I've got it," she assured him.

"The table," he pointed out to her, when she made it inside.

She looked at the carving and swallowed hard as she tried to rid herself of the desire to blow up the entire town. She ran her fingertips over the message and felt an immediate sense of panic.

She couldn't do this anymore. It was all so much. What if it was her fault? What if it was her mother who was responsible? What if she lost Emma? What if she lost Henry?

She felt lightheaded. "I can't," she said. "I need to sit down."

When she went to take another step, she saw bright lights appear in front of her eyes. She thought she heard Charming call her name—but his voice sounded like it was miles away. It was the last thing she remembered before everything turned to back.

When she woke up on a gurney with an oxygen mask on her face, she had no clue how much time had passed.

Dr. Whale was there—and she could vaguely make out his voice. "Regina," he said. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she insisted, as she began to regain her senses.

"Do you know what day it is?"

"Yes—it's Wednesday. I'm fine, it was just…I just got out of bed for too long."

"You're not supposed to be out and about," he reminded her.

"I'm aware...something important came up."

Out of the corner of her eye, Regina saw the familiar sight of long blonde locks. She snapped her head around to the vision of Emma running up to her.

"Gina! What the hell happened?"

"Don't get mad at your dad," she told her, "I made him bring me."

"Why? What's going on?" Emma looked at Regina and then to Charming who was standing behind Dr. Wale.

"We found some evidence," Charming explained. "Regina wanted to see for herself."

"That's what camera phones are for," Emma smiled sympathetically at Regina. "You're _so_ stubborn."

Regina knew Emma didn't understand—because she was missing a key piece of information. This was not the time, with Dr. Whale hovering over them, to explain what had _actually_ happened. How she wasn't entirely sure if she had passed out because of her still-healing lungs, or because of the pure, unadulterated terror she felt at the thought of losing the best thing that ever happened to her.

She wanted to form words—or partake in Emma's witty-banter. But she just couldn't.

"Emma," she sobbed, as her eyes begged for the blonde's embrace.

"Don't cry," Emma said, leaning in to hug her, "it's going to be fine. You're going to feel better so soon. I promise."

And Regina promised herself that she would, indeed, feel better soon. Because she _was _going to figure out who did this.

* * *

That night, Regina tossed and turned in bed. Henry was asleep on the couch and Emma's warm embrace was keeping her from losing what little was left of her sanity.

She replayed in her mind Emma's reaction when they sat down and told her the truth about their discovery. Regina could have sworn that Emma look _relieved._ Relieved that, for once, it wasn't Regina who was in danger.

It was the last thought she had as she drifted off into a deep sleep: that this selfless woman loved her more than she valued her own safety.

_Regina found herself back in the stables in fairytale land, but she was wearing clothes from Storybrook. She walked through the familiar structure and sensed she wasn't alone. _

"_Daniel," she said as soon as she noticed him, "what are you doing here?"_

_She ran to him, jumped into his arms—she could feel him, smell him—and it was difficult to remind herself he wasn't, couldn't be real. _

"_You've had a rough few days, haven't you?" He asked as he welcomed her embrace. _

"_I have," she confirmed, pulling out of the hug but leaving her arms around his neck. "I don't…I don't know what I'm going to do."_

"_Regina—Thank you, thank you for listening to me." _

"_What do you mean?"_

"_I told you to love again and you have. This Emma, she's quite special. I'm really—I'm proud of you. Nothing has been easy for you—and you're still standing."_

"_I wouldn't have been able to move on if you hadn't encouraged me too. But I think….I'm finally…happy." _

"_Then why do you look so sad?"_

"_Someone is trying to hurt her." _

"_I know," Daniel said. _

"_You do?" She asked, looking at him frantically. "Do you know who it is?"_

"_You have to stop being so afraid all the time."_

"_How can you say that? What if I lose her…just like I lost you?"_

"_You can't think like that." _

"_Was it my mother? Did she do this? Is she back? Is she trying to take Emma, too?" _

"_It wasn't Cora. Cora isn't coming back, I promise. You finally have the freedom you always wanted." _

"_Then who did it?" She refused to drop the subject. _

"_Think, Regina. Think."_

"_I can't think of anyone. Everyone loves Emma. She's the savior—she saved everyone." _

"_Including you," he noted. _

"_Yes, including me."_

"_But surely not everyone loves her." _

"_No, it's true—everyone in Storybrook does love her."_

"_What about outside of Storybrook?"_

"_Outside of Storybrook? What are you talking about?"_

"_I can't. I've already stayed too long and said too much." _

"_Don't go," Regina begged. "I don't want you to go yet, please." _

"_I have to," he said, as he stroked her cheek. "But I'm always with you—you know that. I know you feel it." _

"_Are you…are you okay here?" _

"_Of course I am," he smiled. "And I'm keeping busy by watching out for you and your savior." _

"_And Henry?" She asked. _

"_Of course," Daniel promised. "And Henry! He loves you—and I like the slippers he picked out for you. "_

"_I love you," she whispered, afraid he would disappear any second. _

"_I know, Regina. I love you, too. But now you have to wake up. Because you know, you know who did this to Emma. Don't you?" _

Regina woke up in a pool of sweat—completely disoriented, her hands trembling. Her body still throbbing from the day's events—but she knew she needed to get up.

She closed her eyes tight and focused on moving her legs. She swung them off the side of the bed and managed to pull herself up.

Each step she took was painful—but she knew it would be worth it. She walked slowly and carefully out of her room.

When she made it to where Snow and Charming were sleeping, she stood in front of them. It wasn't lost on her that in days past she would've happily taken this opportunity to end the lives of the couple resting peacefully before her. But, tonight, that was the furthest thing from her agenda.

"Snow," she said. "_Wake up!"_

Both Snow and Prince Charming continued to sleep soundly.

She aggressively pushed Snow's shoulder. "Wake up…_ now_."

"Regina?" Snow asked as she slowly opened her eyes. "Are you okay?"

"I just realized something."

"What time is it?" Snow stretched out her arms and looked around the room, clearly confused as to why she was being woken up.

"Listen to me," Regina implored. "This is important."

"Okay, okay," Snow sat up, sensing the urgency in Regina's voice. "You realized something? What did you realize?"

"I realized….I realized what can both cut an alarm wire and carve a message into a wooden table."

"What?"

_"_A _hook." _


	6. Promises & Pie

**Thank you to all my readers! I hope you enjoy this chapter. There will probably be two or three more until the end.**

* * *

Snow and Charming stood on the front steps of Jefferson's mansion while Emma and Regina stood directly behind them. Emma protectively wrapped her arm around Regina's waist for both mental and physical support.

It was truly the last place any of them wanted to be. But if Hook had really found a way back, there was only one person to help them figure out how.

Jefferson opened the door after Snow's third knock. "To what do I owe the pleasure so early in the morning?"

"We need to talk," Charming bluntly stated.

"Do we? Again? About how you think I'm guilty?"

"No," Snow said, "about portals and all your theories about how people can get to Storybrook."

"Is Cora back?" Jefferson questioned, his interest level clearly rising; he was all too ready to be justified in his previously stated concern.

"Not her," Charming explained. "But someone else is."

"Who?"

"Let us in and we'll tell you," Snow bargained.

"Alright," Jefferson agreed, way too curious to refuse them, "come in, then."

Snow and Charming walked in first—and shivers ran up Snow's spine at the memory of Jefferson kidnapping her and dragging her through the very room she currently stood in. It all came flooding back to her; the feel of the rope against her wrists and the gag against her mouth. She tried to shake it off by focusing on the fact that she was here to help her daughter.

Emma and Regina lagged behind, as the latter kept a slow and steady pace. That morning, Emma had helped her get dressed after what had been a useless argument about whether they should come in the first place. Emma knew she was fighting a losing battle, trying to convince this woman to take it down a notch. She knew Regina wasn't going to sit this one out—so it was best to stand by her side as she fought through the pain. And despite Regina's best attempts to look healthy, to put on her normal clothes and make up, it was obvious to everyone who saw her that she wasn't entirely herself.

Jefferson observed Regina's injured state with visible amusement. "I'd like to say you're looking well, Regina," he said with a smirk, "but I'd be _lying_."

"Hey," Emma growled at him, "what's your problem?"

"Just a little inside joke from back in the day," Jefferson jested, "right, my queen?"

"You look beautiful," Emma whispered so no one else could hear as she helped Regina on to the couch; Emma sat down next to her and possessively grabbed her hand.

She had gotten so comfortable over the past few days with being able to show her love for Regina in front of her parents that she had momentarily forgotten her whereabouts and failed to remember that someone else was in the room. Regina immediately realized Emma's mistake, but needed the reassuring touch too much to correct it.

"Um," Jefferson watched the unexpected scene unfold before him, "did I miss something here?"

"That's really none of your business," Regina snarled, her impatience bubbling to the surface. "Now, where is he?"

"Where is _who_?"

"Did you help him get back here?" She pressed the subject, and Emma took note of the possessed look in her eyes.

"Who?" Jefferson repeated.

"Captain Hook," Snow intervened, sensing the exchange was going nowhere fast.

"He's the one who came with Cora last time? The one who shot Belle?"

"Yeah," Charming confirmed, "did you help him find a way to Storybrook?"

"I can assure you I did not. I barely know the man."

"Good," Emma said. "Then you can help _us _instead."

"Oh really?" Jefferson chuckled. "And why exactly should I?"

Emma rarely pulled the savior card because she didn't revel in the role she had neither asked for nor wanted. But, at that particular moment, it seemed more than appropriate to use it to her advantage.

"Because, if it weren't for me, your daughter wouldn't remember who you are. Not to mention you still owe me for that time you drugged me. Helping me is really the least you could do. Don't you think?"

"Yeah, well, if it weren't for_ her_," Jefferson replied, as he gestured to Regina, "none of that would've happened in the first place. I don't really care if in a bizarre twist-of-fate you've developed some sort of affection for this…evil woman. I have no interest in helping her-now or ever."

Regina felt Emma's entire body tense up at Jefferson's accusations. She knew she had to step in before the blonde leaped across the room and ruined any chance they had at getting what they came for.

"Captain Hook isn't after me," Regina informed him. "He's after Emma. This has absolutely nothing to do with helping me-it's about helping the woman who saved the entire town from my curse."

"The fire was set to hurt Emma?" Jefferson asked. "I didn't know there was anyone left around here who didn't have a grudge against you, your majesty. But that certainly is a different story."

"So you'll help?" Snow asked, hopefully.

"What does this Hook fellow have against the savior, anyway?"

"Um...let's see," Emma began, "I left him on the top of a bean stalk with a giant, then I punched him in the face so he couldn't get through the portal, when he finally made it to Storybrook I screwed up his plan for revenge by helping Belle get her memory back...and then I pushed him back through a portal with Cora."

"Impressive," Jefferson noted. "And what, exactly, do you need me for?"

"To help us figure out how he got back here and where he is now. We closed the portal in the well, so we don't know where to start," Emma clarified.

"And you seem rather confident that there are plenty of other ways to get to our world," Charming added.

"Doesn't he have a ship? One that sailed here once before?"

"Yeah," Emma confirmed, "but Rumple destroyed it."

"And you don't think he could get _another_ ship?"

"My mother said they got here by using a magical bean, the last one, to enchant his ship," Regina said. "Even if he had another ship, he would've also had to find another magical way to make it get here. It seems unlikely in such a short time period."

"Okay, I'll help," Jefferson decided. "But, let's just be clear, I'm only doing this out of gratitude towards the savior and absolutely no one else in this room."

"It's been noted, Jefferson," Regina rolled her eyes, "we get the point."

"Even if you did take your sweet time believing in the curse, Emma, you still broke it."

"What will you do?" Snow asked curiously.

"If there's another portal in this town that someone's come through recently," Jefferson said, with a tone of arrogance in his voice, "I promise you I'll find it."

* * *

"Does anyone else feel like maybe we should tell Rumple that Hook is back?" Snow asked, realizing that no one had addressed that particular issue.

The foursome stood on the street outside of Jefferson's house.

"Probably," Charming agreed, "at least for Belle's sake."

"That's one visit I think I'll skip out on," Regina said. "I really have no desire to see him unless it's absolutely necessary. These past few months of avoiding him have been particularly pleasant."

"We should get you home anyway," Emma said, thankful Regina was aware of her own limits. "Think you guys can handle Rumple on your own?"

"Of course we can," Snow promised. "We'll meet you at the house in a little while."

* * *

Back at the apartment, Regina stood in front of the mirror closely examining her own reflection.

"Look at my face," she said excitedly to Emma.

"It's beautiful as usual," Emma looked up at her, "no need to show off."

"That's _not_ what I meant. I meant I don't look ghostly pale— I think I'm starting to get my color back."

"You're right," Emma smiled, "you are."

"Today's the best I've felt all week," she said truthfully. The pain in her chest was slowly but surely subsiding with each passing day. "As long as I take it easy I don't even really get dizzy when I walk."

"That's great…because I want to take you somewhere."

"You're letting me leave the house twice in one day, sheriff?" Regina raised her eyebrow in response to the suggestion.

"Don't get overly excited," Emma advised. "We're driving someplace where you'll be sitting the entire time. But I spoke to Whale and he said getting you outside would actually be good for those lungs—fresh air and everything."

"Don't you need to pick up Henry?"

"I already texted Ruby and she's got it covered. He can hang out with her and Granny for a while."

"Should we really be leaving him alone considering everything that's going on?"

"Uh," Emma said, "I don't think leaving him with a girl who can turn into a wolf and eat people and the woman with the most weapons in all of Storybrook constitutes him being alone."

"True," Regina conceded.

"I mean…if you don't want to hang out with me, you don't have to," Emma sarcastically recommended. "I can just leave you here if that's what you want."

"Are you kidding me? It feels like we haven't been alone in years. Your parents are extremely talented at hovering."

"Yeah," Emma said, "they have a gift, don't they?"

* * *

Eating lunch out by the lake was a simple yet perfect surprise. Regina was ecstatic to feel the warmth of the sun against her skin and to have a break from the stuffy apartment air.

Still, she couldn't bring herself to relax. Every time she closed her eyes, or let her thoughts wander, she worried about Emma. She worried about finding Hook. She worried what each new day would bring them.

"Can you please stop?" Emma begged. "I can literally feel your anxiety right now."

"I'm just anxious," Regina admitted, knowing it was impossible lie to the only person who could call her out so effectively. "I want this to be over with already."

"You need to stop being so afraid all the time," Emma echoed the exact words Daniel had said to Regina in her dream.

And while it shocked her, it didn't surprise her. The similarities between Emma and Daniel were abundant. And today—today was one of those days Regina could, undoubtedly, feel his presence; as if he was sitting there with them, whispering into Emma's ear.

"I'm not afraid of_ anything_," Regina said, honestly, "except losing you and Henry."

"You're not going to lose us," Emma insisted.

"You can't make that sort of promise. And there's nothing you can do that's going to change how I feel."

Emma fell silent—and Regina was sure the discussion was closed; that she had 'won' because her point was taken and accepted as true.

But Emma had a nagging feeling inside of her, an incredibly strong feeling that there was one, single way for her to put this argument to rest for good. The words escaped her lips before she could give them a second thought.

"Not even if I asked you to marry me?"

"Excuse me?"

"Sorry this isn't...this wasn't planned," she stumbled over her words, "I don't even have..."

"Emma Swan," Regina demanded, "stop your babbling, put together a coherent sentence and tell me what the hell you're talking about."

"Okay," she said, pulling herself together, "I'm being completely serious. I love you. I love our family. I'm _never_ leaving you. And there's no doubt in my mind that I want to marry you."

"You don't think this is, oh I don't know, _way _too soon? It's only been…it hasn't even been a year."

"I probably would've thought that at some point in my life. But now I live in a world where there are soul-suckers and ogres and people who want to kill me jumping through portals to get the job done. So now... now I think that it's never too soon to start living life exactly how I want to live it. And I want to be with you forever. I mean, we both know that's where this is going, right? So why…why would we wait?"

"I see," Regina processed as she stared at Emma, realizing how very serious she was.

"I know this is the worst unplanned proposal in the history of all time. I know you deserve so much better but…"

"I deserve _better_?" Regina scoffed at the notion. "The fact that I know you genuinely believe that only serves to highlight your extreme levels of delusion. I don't deserve you, any single part of you, to begin with."

"I hate that you think that. You've thought that since the day this started—when I kissed you…you kissed me back, but you were so hesitant. And I just knew why—because you didn't think you deserved it and you didn't think it would last. I swear to you, I decided in that moment to prove you wrong on both accounts."

"Emma….you…I just…"

"Who can't put together a coherent sentence now?" Emma grinned, looking extremely satisfied with herself. "So will you marry me or not?"

Regina's response was to grab Emma's face and bring it to her own; she smashed their lips together, physically demonstrating her approval.

"Of _course _I'll marry you_,_" she said when they finally parted.

"I swear I'll get you a really good ring."

"You know…if I'm going to be wearing a ring we'll probably have to tell people other than your parents about this relationship. Half the town still thinks you only live with me to make sure I don't turn evil."

"I know," Emma said. "Are you ready for that?"

"You're the one who will be called crazy, dear. You're the one who everyone is going to be judging. _You _have to be the one prepared to deal with that."

"I can handle it," Emma promised. "Maybe I'll draft a press release."

"Oh, a press release? That would be an interesting approach."

"Actually, I think it would be even better if we just didn't say anything but started being all touchy-feely in public and then see who is brave enough to ask us what's going on."

"That's a ridiculous idea," Regina said as she let out the first genuine laugh she had since before the fire. "Can we go tell Henry now?"

"Yeah," Emma said, "let's go get our son."

* * *

It had been a good day. In fact, it had been the best day of her life since the day she first held baby Henry in her arms.

And although Regina wished they weren't spending the first night of their engagement sleeping under the same roof as Snow White and Prince Charming, she knew she had a lot to be thankful for.

Which was why she was trying so hard to control the anger she felt manifesting inside of her. She had been successfully pushing it down all week—the anger she felt at the images of Hook hurting Emma. But when everyone was asleep-and she was left alone with her thoughts, it was almost impossible to handle.

She could feel the magic in her—threatening to make its way out.

She got up from bed, walked to the bathroom, closed the door and sat down on the edge of tub. She took deep breaths, just like Archie taught her to. She thought happy thoughts—she thought of Emma and Henry. She pictured their faces. She focused on all the great things about her life with them.

Her breathing exercises were quickly interrupted by the sound of footsteps in the hallway.

"Hello?" Regina whispered.

"Mom?" Henry replied. "Are you okay?"

"Henry," she said as she opened the door, "what are you doing awake?"

"I heard you get up and I wanted to make sure you weren't sick or anything."

"That's sweet, honey. But I'm fine and you have school tomorrow."

"I wish you wouldn't lie to me, I'm not a baby anymore," he sighed as he sat down next to her. "And you don't seem fine. I thought you would be happy tonight of all nights. You're not…you're not rethinking your answer to Emma's proposal, are you?"

"Of course not," Regina firmly reassured him. "It's just…it's hard for me to think about someone wanting to hurt Emma. So, I can't really sleep."

"You know good always wins, right? And Hook definitely isn't good so he definitely won't win."

"I know," Regina accepted her son's optimism and refused to crush it with the years of overwhelming evidence to the contrary she had experienced. "I didn't say I was worried about us losing to him, I'm just upset anyone would go after Emma. And when I get angry like this it's sort of difficult to control the magic inside of me."

Regina held out her hands in front of her body—they were radiating with a purple glow.

"Woah," Henry stared down at his mother's fingers, "that's cool."

"Not so cool," Regina reminded him. "I'm not using it anymore, remember?"

"Can you get rid of the magic by doing random things?"

"What do you mean?"

"Follow me," Henry said as he got up from the tub.

Regina followed him to the kitchen, trying to walk as quietly as possible so they wouldn't wake anyone else up.

"Can you like…use magic to rearrange the cabinets or something? Do something totally harmless to get rid of the magic energy?"

"For someone who doesn't even _have_ magic, that's a pretty good suggestion. How'd you come up with that?"

"Archie always says to re-channel negative energy. I thought maybe the same could apply here."

"Right," Regina said. "But how do you think your grandparents would feel about me messing up their entire kitchen?"

"Whatever," Henry shrugged. "We'll put it back."

Regina was hesitant to demonstrate any sort of magic in front of Henry—but she also knew his idea might just work. So, she held out her hands and let the magic flow.

Henry watched, completely captivated, as his mother opened and closed cabinets—as dishes and glasses danced in the air. She couldn't help but enjoy his reaction; his eyes followed her every move.

"So could you like…. cook an entire meal without actually ever touching anything?"

"Of course I could."

"Make a pie!" Henry exclaimed.

"It's the middle of the night!" Regina retorted, laughing at the look on his face. "I'm _not _giving you a pie. I'll make you one tomorrow."

"Fine," Henry said. "Open the window?"

"That's easy," she told him, as the window flew open.

"Turn on the TV!"

She flicked her wrist and turned on the television.

"Mom….you're like…you're like a human remote control."

"That's one way I've never heard myself described before."

"Want to watch?"

"Sure," she said, already feeling better.

They sat down together on the couch—but Regina immediately noticed her son's eyes were on her, and not on the show that was playing in front of them.

"Why don't you do this stuff more often?" He asked. "This kind of magic is fun."

"Magic can be fun," she agreed. "But it can also be addictive. I was trying not to use it at all so I wouldn't be tempted to use it for anything bad."

"Can I ask you something?"

"You can ask me anything, always."

"I know Cora…I know what she did to Daniel. But did she ever use magic to hurt you, too?"

Part of the healing process with Henry had been helping him to understand her better-to get him to understand why she had become the Evil Queen in the first place. She had, with Emma's help, exposed him to the story that had been left out of his book: the story of what her mother did to Daniel.

But Regina had admittedly left other details about his grand-mother out; the very details he was now asking about.

"Yes," Regina said quietly, as she looked at her son. "Cora is the perfect example of how magic can go wrong and change your heart. Unfortunately that's what I grew up around and she did hurt me. I managed to resist magic until Daniel—but after he died, it felt like I had nothing left. So magic changed my heart, too. But thankfully I had you and Emma to change it back."

"How come Cora wouldn't change for you?"

"I don't know. I'll never know the answer to that. I wanted her to change, so badly. But when she came here, she just wanted to manipulate me all over. I guess she was too far gone."

"I'm sorry," he said, the sadness written all over his face.

"It's all in the past now," she assured him. "But you can understand why I don't take magic lightly."

"I know, I get it."

"Emma told you I had to use magic to send Cora back, right?"

"Yeah," Henry said, "you didn't have a choice."

"And if I have to use magic to get an advantage over Hook…if I have to use it to protect Emma…you'll understand that too, right?"

"Mom—you don't need to ask my permission. I trust you to use magic whenever you want to."

"You do?"

"Of course I do. I think you should use the good kind of magic whenever you want to."

"Thank you, Henry. That means…your trust, it means everything to me."

"And, I'm just saying…if you ever want to use magic to make me ice cream or something, that's cool too."

"I'll take that into consideration."

"By the way," Henry said, attempting to change the subject to something that would make his mom happy, "Emma asked me to help pick out your ring."

"Thank goodness," Regina teased, "she's going to need all the help she can get. I mean, let's face it, if you don't go help her I'll probably get something hideous."

"You can show me pictures of what you want," Henry suggested.

"No," Regina insisted, "I trust you."

Henry turned his head around at the sound of Emma's bedroom door opening. His other mom appeared in the hallway, rubbing her eyes.

"Jesus, woman," she mumbled as she noticed Regina on the couch. "I had a heart attack when you weren't in bed. You need to stop roaming around in the middle of the night."

"We're watching TV," Henry explained.

"At one in the morning? You really are becoming the lenient mom, aren't you?"

"Yeah, well," Regina said, "guilty as charged I suppose."

"She's not _that_ lenient," Henry added, "she wouldn't even make me a pie."

"No pie? Why not? It's never too late for pie."

"Tomorrow," Regina promised. "Come sit with us?"

Emma made a conscious choice to sit on the other side of Regina, knowing full well that her fiancée would love nothing more than being sandwich in between her and their son.

The three of them sat in comfortable silence—simply content to enjoy each other's company. It was Emma who flinched when she noticed two shadows out of the corner of her eye.

Charming and Snow emerged from their room, wielding a sword.

"Holy shit," Emma yelled, when she noticed them in fighting stance. "What do you think you're doing?"

"We heard voices!" Snow explained, "We got scared!"

"Do you seriously like keep a sword underneath your pillow? I have the world's most bizarre parents."

"It's just the TV," Henry said, for the second time. "We can't sleep."

"I guess I won't be needing this," Charming said as he put the sword away before joining the rest of his family in the living room.

"We wanted Regina to make a pie," Emma told her mother, "but she's being sort of a buzz kill."

"Pie?" Snow perked up. "That seems like a great way to celebrate an engagement."

"I mean," Charming added, "I wouldn't say no to pie right now."

"What is up with the appetites in this family? I'm not making pie at this hour—it's absurd."

"Did you know she can make pie with _magic_?" Henry asked, directing his question to Emma.

"Wait," Emma paused, "Really? Like you can just poof a pie in front of us?"

"Of course she can," Snow said. "How did you_ not_ know that? She could probably poof anything in front of you."

"And all this time, when I asked you for food, I felt guilty because I thought you had to slave over a hot stove. Meanwhile, you could just snap your fingers and hand it over?"

"First of all, if you knew that before tonight, you would be morbidly obese. You should be thanking me for withholding information. Second of all, you have magic, too. Poof yourself a pie."

"No way…my magic is lame compared to yours. I would ruin it. You_ have_ to be the provider of the pies."

"I'm not supposed to be using magic!"

"I think you could make an exception on your engagement night," Snow encouraged.

"Fine," Regina said, accepting the fact that she was completely outnumbered in her quest for nutrition.

With a wave of her hand, a large pie appeared on the table-along with five plates, knives, forks and napkins.

"Sweet!" Henry exclaimed.

"Oh my god," Emma said. "I am _so_ going to get fat in this marriage."

"Thanks Regina," Charming said, as he cut the pie, "and congratulations."

"Congratulations," Snow echoed.

"Thank you," Regina genuinely appreciated their acceptance. It was acceptance she hadn't expected to come easily; acceptance that had come quicker than she ever anticipated possible.

When she thought about exactly who was congratulating her, she almost didn't want to fit in with them. But as she looked around the room, she realized it was too late: she already did.


	7. Confrontations

**Here you go, the next chapter! There will be two more after this. I hope the build-up was worth the wait. Also, there is some violence in this chapter. It's not terrible, but I figured I would warn you. Enjoy!**

* * *

"So, Jefferson called my dad this morning," Emma told Regina as they sat at a booth at Grannys.

They had just finished a late breakfast and Emma had patiently waited for Regina to finish her coffee before she shared the latest news.

"Why did he call your father and not you?"

"I don't know," Emma shrugged. "I actually think they're developing a weird investigative bromance or something."

"Well, that sounds potentially disturbing," Regina said. "But did he find anything useful?"

"Yeah, he said Hook came in through a portal deep in the forest and that the portal was really small, so only one person could come through. He said he found magical residue or something like that. I barely understood what he was talking about, but I'm sure you would. Oh, and he also found the place where Hook is camping out."

"What do we do now?" Regina asked, completely focused on eliminating the threat to her family.

"I mean...he doesn't know we're on to him at all, which is ideal. We should probably gang up on him when he doesn't expect it. If there's four of us and one of him, we can definitely take him."

"Three of us," Regina corrected. "All four of us shouldn't go. Just in case something goes wrong. We can't allow for even the possibility of Henry losing his entire family in one day."

Emma knew it was a morbid thought, but she also knew Regina was right.

"And I'm assuming I can't convince _you_ to stay home, right?"

"Considering you're the one Hook actually wants to kill, it should be you who stays. But I also realize that won't happen."

"One of my parents, then," Emma conceded. "I can't wait to listen to _that_ fight. My dad will insist on coming and my mom will argue that she helped defeat Hook the first time."

"Either way," Regina said.

"I don't even want to over-think it…because nothing is going to go wrong."

"I agree. We just can't risk it."

"Would you be alright with having dinner with my parents tonight so we can talk through the plan?"

"That's fine," Regina agreed. "I can tolerate them much more now that I don't have to run into them in the bathroom in the morning."

"It's _definitely_ good to be home."

They had moved back in a few days ago, much to everyone's relief. The apartment, though less intolerable than Regina had first imagined, was way too crowded for five people.

And now that they knew who was responsible for the fire, Regina had used magic to restore her house to its former glory. They were also happy to discover that a minimal amount of irreplaceable items had been lost.

"Indeed it is," Regina sighed. "I never thought I'd be so happy to sleep in my own bed."

"Gina," Emma whispered, leaning in from across the table, "want to try our little experiment?"

"Really? You were serious about that?"

"Yes, really. I want you to be able to wear your ring sometime this century."

Emma had given it to her on their first night back at the house. Henry had watched, beaming with joy, as she knelt down on one knee and made their engagement official. But Regina had yet to wear the diamond in public, not ready to answer the questions that would surely come with it.

"This will only work if no matter how people react, we just ignore it and go on like everything is completely normal."

"I can do it," Emma professed.

"You _can't _start laughing—you have to keep a straight face."

"I won't laugh," the blonde whined, "you have so little faith in me."

"Not you in, dear...just in your ability to pull this off."

Emma responded to the challenge by grabbing Regina's hands and intertwining their fingers on top of the table. "Trust me," she said, seductively, "there is _nothing _funny about this."

They both knew it was dangerous territory.

Regina was better, almost entirely healed. But, she still hadn't been cleared for "rigorous" activity. The fact that they hadn't been able to _officially_ celebrate their engagement was driving them both crazy.

It was Dr. Whale who noticed their unexpected interaction first.

"Ruby," he caught her attention, waving her over with his menu, "Am I? Am I the only one seeing this?"

Ruby almost dropped the pot of hot coffee on the floor when she saw them. "What the hell? They're like…"

"Caressing each other?" Whale offered. "Did you know about this?"

"I'm not even sure what 'this' is…it doesn't make any sense."

"They've been living together for a while, maybe something…happened."

"No," Ruby shook her head, "there's just no way. I refuse to believe it."

"We're staring," Whale said, trying to look away, "I feel like we shouldn't be staring."

"How can we not stare? Like, are they kidding me right now? Do you think I should I go over there?"

"I don't know...maybe?"

The smirk on Regina's face grew as she felt all eyes in the restaurant on them. "Who do you think is going to freak out the most?"

"Not sure actually," Emma thought out loud. "But we're going to find out."

She closed the small amount of space between them, and kissed Regina on the lips. When she started to pull away, Regina pulled her back in and kissed her nose.

"Nice touch," Emma smiled. "_Super_ romantic."

"Super cheesy actually," Regina clarified, "but for our purposes today it gets the job done."

Granny and Leroy had joined Ruby and Whale at the counter.

"No way," Leroy said, "this is not happening. Snow is going to have an actual mental breakdown."

"Did Regina just kiss Emma's nose?" Granny asked.

"Okay, that's it," Whale stated, "You have to go over there!"

Ruby nodded in agreement as she casually made her way to their table. "Uh," she cleared her throat, "everything okay over here?"

"It was delicious as usual," Emma perked up, pretending she didn't know Ruby was referring to their behavior, and not their meal.

"Alright...well, um...do you guys need anything else?"

"Do you want a coffee to go, babe?" Emma addressed Regina, with her best puppy-dog eyes.

"No, Em...I'm good."

"Just the bill then," Emma replied, never taking her eyes off of Regina. "Thank you."

"Sure?" Ruby said, making no attempt to hide her confusion, "No problem, I guess."

Moments later, she brought them over the check without saying another word.

Emma left a twenty on the table before standing up and offering her hand to Regina once again. Regina happily accepted it as Emma pulled her up and then quickly pulled her in tight by wrapping her arms around her shoulder. Regina leaned into Emma's ear, whispering through her blonde locks. They exited without bothering to say good-bye.

"That was epic," Emma said, once they were outside and around the corner.

"I think Ruby almost passed out," Regina added. "By the way, you saying 'babe,' was painfully awkward."

"Yeah, I agree with that—felt totally bizarre coming out of my mouth. Never again?"

"Never, ever again."

Emma's phone vibrated in her pocket. "It's my mom, this should be good."

She answered and put it on speaker.

"Emma, sweetheart, were you just making out with Regina in public?"

"Maybe," she replied innocently, "why do you ask?"

"This is not an exaggeration: I have 38 text messages and 7 missed calls. You know, you really could've warned me."

"Sorry," Emma offered, trying to contain her laughter.

"No you're not, I can hear you smirking."

"Okay, you're right. I'm not sorry at all."

"How do you want me to answer these questions?"

"With the truth," Emma instructed.

"The whole _engaged_ truth?"

"You can start out with the fact that I love her- we'll work up to the engagement."

"I feel like it would be easier for me to host a town-wide meeting for this. I'm going to have to explain it 500 separate times."

"Yeah, we considered a meeting but we figured this was a more amusing way to go."

"Sure, it's easy for you to be amused while my phone won't stop ringing. Oh, look, another text from Ruby. She's _very_ concerned that you've both been put under some sort of spell or that you've been poisoned and don't actually know what you're doing."

Regina laughed out loud at that particular hypothesis.

"Oh, hi Regina," Snow addressed her directly, realizing she was on speaker, "I'm glad you're amused, too."

"I do admit to taking some pleasure in the shock factor," Regina said, completely satisfied with their performance.

"I better go answer a few of these before there is some sort of riot."

"Can you and dad come over for dinner tonight?"

"Of course," Snow said, "how's six?"

"Yup," Emma confirmed, "see you then."

Regina shook her head as Emma hung up the phone. "That was ridiculous."

"My plans are always perfect," the savior boasted. "I knew that would go splendidly."

"People think we would have to be poisoned to like each other."

"They'll get used to the idea. And until then, it will be fun for us to mess with everyone."

"I'm going to go home now," Regina declared, before rewarding Emma with a second public kiss on the lips. "And you should probably go to work. What do you want me to make for dinner?"

"Whatever you want," Emma grinned. "Surprise me."

* * *

Emma sat at the Sheriff's station—completely zoned out. It was a quiet day, so quite that Charming hadn't even bothered to come in. It was pointless for them both to sit around doing nothing.

When she heard footsteps in the hallway, she was positive they belonged to her father. Even when he had the day off, he often came into check up on her.

But, instead, her eyes took in the sight of Captain Hook walking in holding up a gun.

"Hook," Emma said, jumping up and immediately pulling out her own gun and pointing it straight at him. "_Really?_ This is your big follow up to trying to set me on fire? Just waltzing in to the station?"

"Disappointed, love?" He leaned against the door frame, in his distinctive arrogant form.

"Not really," Emma replied, "we've been looking for you all week—just didn't expect you to make it this easy."

She stood firmly behind her desk, hiding the hand that held her cellphone. She pressed the first number on her speed dial and let ring. She silently prayed Regina would pick up and hear what was going on.

"Oh, it is going to be easy," Hook threatened. "I mean, you knew revenge was sort of my thing, didn't you?"

"Actually, I think your thing is _failing_ at revenge. Rumple's still alive, Belle has her memory back…you couldn't even set a fire properly."

"It was _you_ who fucked up everything, you know. If you had just trusted me instead of screwing me over, none of it would've gone down like that."

"Yeah because _clearly_ you're a trustworthy individual; I missed out on the friendship of a lifetime."

"I might not be a saint…but I would've taken care of Rumple, Cora and Regina all at once. Think of the ways in which all your problems would've been solved if you had teamed up with me."

"Regina_ isn't_ Cora," Emma said, defensively, "and she's not a problem that needs to be solved."

"The evil apple doesn't fall from the evil tree."

"In this case, it most definitely does."

"That's interesting," Hook said, walking closer to her, "last time I was here you thought she was a murderer."

"Yeah, after a nice-frame job by your partner in crime. But since, you know, you can't do anything right we figured that one out, too. Right after Belle beat the crap out of you."

"Regina may not have murdered that particular man, but that doesn't change who she is."

"A lot has changed now that her psychopathic mother from hell is out of the picture."

"I'm relatively sure once you've ripped someone's heart out of their chest, you're on the naughty list for life."

"Shut up," Emma screamed at him violently. "You don't know her. You don't know what the hell you're talking about."

"Emma Swan," Hook raised his eyebrow, "do I detect a hint of sympathy, even—dare I say—a soft spot for your son's mother?"

"Is that a problem?"

"Only in that you should never, _ever_ tell me where you keep your heart."

* * *

Regina was floating around the kitchen, enjoying the simple pleasure of cooking a homemade meal. She had truly missed preparing food for Emma and Henry when she was sick and was excited to make a big, healthy dinner.

Her cell phone rang on the counter, and she saw Emma's name on the caller ID.

"Make it fast, dear...I'm elbow deep in flour," she said as she picked up.

She could hear Emma's voice but it sounded oddly far away. "Hello? Are you there?"

The voice she heard next turned her stomach into a knot and made her heart skip a beat.

It was Hook. And he was with Emma.

At first, she tried to listen to what he was saying—but she realized the attempt was futile. Instead, she hung up the phone, determined to get to Emma as fast as possible.

She was furious that Hook had caught them off guard; it was exactly what they were trying to avoid. She needed a way to get the upper-hand back. She needed to throw him off his game.

And she knew Regina Mills couldn't make that happen. But she also knew someone who certainly could.

She stood in her hallway, closed her eyes, and focused on exactly what she wanted to achieve. She used magic to transform herself into the most vicious-looking version of her Evil Queen self. The leather pants, sparkling red jacket and boots appeared on her body without a hitch. The make-up and hair followed.

She bit her lip as she looked at her reflection. It had been quite some time since she had seen herself like this. But she didn't have time to think about it.

Regina likewise used magic to transport herself to the front door of the station. She wanted to burst in and run to Emma's side. But she knew that's exactly the opposite of what the Evil Queen would do. She knew she had to, under all circumstances, remain calm and act as though the possibility of defeat was neither frightening nor plausible.

So, Regina strut through the door, silently terrified of what she would find, but outwardly putting on her best game face.

"Regina, what perfect timing," Hook turned, "_your girlfriend_ was just talking about you."

She absorbed the scene before her; Emma had her gun pointed at Hook who now had his gun pointed at Regina. She knew Emma, too, was wearing a mask of bravery—one she could see right through.

"Fiancée, actually," she corrected him, flashing the ring that was now proudly sitting on her finger.

"Oh, well, isn't that just precious. It's such a shame she's going to end up exactly like your last one."

"I don't think so," Regina hissed. "In fact, I highly suggest you go back to my mother before you embarrass yourself."

"Speaking of your mother, she's so very sorry she couldn't make it."

"Yes," Regina's voice dripped with sarcasm, "my life is unspeakably empty without her."

"Thankfully since she's such a giving person, she didn't send me unprepared."

Before anyone realized what he was doing, Hook reached into his back pocket, pulled out a pouch and launched the contents in Emma's direction.

Emma coughed in reaction, breathing in a pink dust. Within seconds, she fell to the floor. Regina wanted to scream, but she held herself back. She knew exactly what Hook had done, and it was harmless.

"Sleeping dust?" Regina cackled with her best Evil Queen laugh, "_that's_ what my mother sent you with? How _horrifying_. All you've done is made it so that Emma gets to take a nap while I put an end to you."

"On the contrary," Hook retorted, "you see first I'm going to blow your brains out. Then, I'm going to wake her up and let her break down about how she never got to say goodbye to her true love. Let her cry it out over what's left of your body for a few minutes. Then I'm going to blow _her_ brains out."

"I really don't know who you think you're kidding, because I have magic and you don't. Who do you think is going to win here?"

"Me," he muttered. "Because mommy dearest sent me with something for you, too."

Hook reached into his pocket once more—and this time, used magic to send Regina flying into the wall. She felt herself stick to the concrete, fully aware that her mother had provided Hook with a potion to restrain her.

The Captain approached her, as his finger moved to the trigger. But she didn't flinch, because she knew exactly what spell Cora had given him. And she also knew her own magic was infinitely stronger.

She waited for Hook to step even closer to her, until the metal of the gun was pushed against her forehead. And that's when she reached into his chest and ripped out his heart. He collapsed from the sheer strength she exuded. She held his heart in her hands-and squeezed it gently, twice-causing him to pass out from the pain. And then she froze, at a loss for what to do next.

* * *

Snow didn't usually take naps. But it had been a long week and she finally had the apartment all to herself. Emma was at work and Charming was out with Henry. She was going to take advantage of some well-deserved alone time before she had to shower and get ready for dinner.

She often had trouble falling asleep, but on this particular afternoon she felt herself doze off within moments of her head hitting the pillow.

_Snow found herself standing in the very spot where Regina had given her the poison apple. But she looked around and seemed to be alone. _

_"Hello?" She called out loudly, worried she was back in fairytale land and separated from her family once again. _

_Suddenly, a figure she recognized stood before her. His demeanor was calm and welcoming in a way she couldn't fully comprehend. _

"_Daniel?" She asked. _

_"Snow," he replied, gently; speaking her name as if she was still the child he had known her as. _

_"What's going on? What am I doing here?"_

_"You're dreaming," he reassured her. "But you shouldn't be here. Especially when Emma needs you." _

_He began to walk away from her, but she ran after him, desperate to continue the conversation. "You know my Emma?"_

_"I do," he said, as they walked side by side, "very well, in fact." _

_"But that's...that's not possible. You never met her and I was only a little girl when you..." she trailed off. _

_"When I died," he finished for her. _

_She nodded, feeling incredibly sad and guilty; the vision of this man so many years later was intriguing, but also shocking. _

_"There's more than one way to know someone, Snow," he explained. "I mean, you and I only met once. But I feel like we know each other much better than that, don't you?"_

_"I'm so sorry. Regina was right, it was my fault. It's just that I swear, __I swear__ I didn't mean for it to happen."_

_"The only person who is at fault is Cora. And it doesn't even matter... because it had to happen like this." _

_"It did?" _

_"It was __always__ going to happen like this. It needed to." _

_"I don't think I know what you mean."_

_"That's okay," Daniel promised her. "I don't expect you to." _

_"What were you saying about Emma? That she needs me?" _

_"Yes," he confirmed. "And so does Regina."_

_"Regina needs __me__? That seems unlikely."_

_"There was a part of you that never gave up on her. If you had, if you had listened to your husband, things would've turned out differently."_

_"He was just trying to protect me...and the kingdom," she said, in an attempt to defend Charming. _

_"Of course he was. And who could blame him? He never knew Regina like we did. He never saw her like we did." _

_"There are things I didn't understand when I was younger, that I think I understand now." _

_She didn't know what made her think it, but the words came out of her mouth and she was grateful that they did. _

_"Like what?" Daniel pressed her. _

_"Her marriage to my father...she wasn't even that much older than me. And I don't think he was very good to her."_

_"No,…he wasn't good to her." _

_"But, she really loves Emma."_

_"Very much," he agreed, as they finally stopped walking. _

_Snow looked around, and didn't recognize the hill they stood on top of. She looked down over a large cliff which seemed intimidatingly bottomless. "Where are we?" _

_"You've always been good at taking a leap of faith. I need you to take one now."_

_"You want me to jump?"_

_"You have to. For Emma."_

_"And Regina?"_

_"For your family. Is Regina part of your family?"_

_"Yes," Snow admitted. "I suppose she is."_

_"Then, yes, for Regina, too."_

_"It looks...it doesn't look very safe."_

_"You're going to have to trust me on this." _

_She stood on the edge and she wasn't scared. "Okay, I trust you." _

_She took a deep breath and jumped. _

Snow woke up, unable to catch her breath. She didn't have time to process exactly what had just happened. She just knew she needed to find her daughter.

* * *

Regina had never felt so torn in her life.

She didn't want to kill him but she _really _wanted to kill him.

She didn't want to crush another heart but this pathetic excuse for a man had threatened Emma's life.

And she feared that if she didn't end this now, he wouldn't stop. He would keep coming after them until he got exactly what he wanted. After all, they had sent him through the portal once before, and he had come back. Why would this time be any different?

"Emma," Snow screamed as she ran into the station, horrified at what she found. She saw her daughter on the floor and gasped out loud. "Is she?"

"Emma's fine," Regina whimpered, her voice cracking with each syllable. "It's just...it's only sleeping dust."

"Hook?" Snow asked, looking at him on ground. She noticed the heart still beating in Regina's hands, signifying that she hadn't killed him yet. She also noticed the terror in Regina's eyes and that the woman's entire body was shaking.

"_Help,_" she muttered. "I don't know...I don't know what to do."

"Don't do it," Snow told her. "We'll lock him up. We'll find another way."

"He was going to shoot me. He had the gun to my head. And then he was going wake Emma up and shoot her, too."

"You won't be able to forgive yourself if you do it-even if he deserves it. This isn't who you are now. He's bad but _you're not_."

"Then lock him up," she screamed at the top of her lungs._ "Now." _

Snow jumped at Regina's words—she used every last ounce of strength she had to drag Hook's still unconscious body across the room and into the jail cell. Regina followed, observing Snow's every move—terrified something would go wrong.

"Put it back," Regina instructed, handing over the heart.

Snow closed her eyes and pushed her hand into Hook's chest, until she felt the organ take hold in his body. She swiftly locked the cell door behind her.

She ran to her former enemy and threw her arms around her. She was expecting Regina to resist, to recoil at her touch. But instead, Regina collapsed into her.

"Everything is fine," Snow soothed, running her hands up and down Regina's back . "Emma's fine. It's going to be alright."

"I just want to her to be safe," she sobbed. "We shouldn't have to live like this."

Snow thought of Daniel and what he had said to her. The words _"he wasn't" _echoed through her brain_._

She realized that Regina had never been safe; not with her own mother and not in her marriage. And in that moment Snow understood the need this woman had developed to be in control, to be powerful.

"She's safe," Snow promised. "And so are you."

Regina dried her eyes and swallowed the vast amount of saliva that had formed in her mouth. "I should wake her up," she motioned to Emma.

"You can do that?"

"I think so," Regina nodded.

The two women walked over to Emma and Regina knelt down beside her. She placed her hands onto Emma's arms and within seconds, magic jolted Emma awake.

She slowly opened her eyes to her mother and Regina hovering over her.

"What happened? Are you alright?" Emma sprung up, remembering what had caused her to fall asleep.

"I'm fine."

"Did he hurt you?" Emma's eyes searched her fiancées' body, looking for any sign of damage.

"No...Cora gave him magic. But mine was stronger."

"What exactly happened?"

"Regina saved the day," Snow informed her, "that's what happened."

"Your mom was a big help," Regina said, genuinely. "I'm not sure…I'm not sure what would have happened if she didn't show up here."

Emma noticed how shaken the two most important women in her life looked. She wanted to know more, but it seemed best not to push them just yet. "I guess we're lucky you decided to stop by then."

"About that," Snow said, shyly. "Regina...please don't freak out when I tell you this."

"What is it?"

"It was...Daniel. I saw him."

"Daniel?" Emma questioned, looking at her mom skeptically.

"I was dreaming and he told me that you both needed me."

"Okay," Emma said, "you do realize that's completely insane, right?"

"I know how it sounds, Emma. But I also know what happened."

"I believe you," Regina whispered.

"You do?" Emma asked, shocked at the reaction.

"I saw him in a dream, too," she admitted. "He's the one who told me it was Hook in the first place."

Silence filled the room. Regina and Snow shared an understanding look, both quietly acknowledging what they had experienced.

"How long until he wakes up?" Emma asked, breaking the tension as she noticed Hook sprawled out on the jail cell floor.

"A few hours maybe," Regina guessed.

"And what do we do then?"

"That is the question, isn't it?"

"I think I have an idea," Snow said. "I think I know _exactly_ what to do."


	8. The Field-trip

**Uploading the last two chapters directly in a row!:)**

* * *

Emma, Regina and Snow stood outside the sheriff's station, desperate to get some air.

Snow had called her husband and filled him in on the situation and now the three women were waiting for him to arrive with Henry.

"I know Henry is alright, but I just want to see him already," Regina thought out loud, as she fidgeted with her hands. "What's taking them so long?"

"They walked to the stables, so they don't have the car," Snow explained. "They should be here any second."

After what felt like ages, but was realistically only a few minutes later, Regina spotted her son from across the street. Without so much as checking for cars, Henry ran across the road and flung himself into Emma's arms.

"Did he hurt you? Are you guys okay?"

"He didn't hurt anyone, kid," Emma told him. "Your mom was awesome. She's basically a rock-star."

"Mom?" Henry looked curiously at Regina, who was still dressed in her Evil Queen attire. "_What_ are you wearing?"

"I'm going to have to second that," Emma smirked. "I know we have much bigger problems on our hands right now…but seriously, did you expect me to _not_ bring up the leather pants?"

"I wanted to intimidate him," Regina clarified, suddenly feeling awkward. "I guess I thought it would help."

Before anyone could comment further on the issue, a purple flash of smoke appeared. And when it was gone, Regina stood before them back in her Storybrook clothes.

"No!" Emma protested. "I_ liked _them. It wasn't a complaint!"

"Me too," Henry seconded. "You looked cool."

"Yes, well as fascinating as my past-wardrobe may be, can we move on? Hook could wake up."

"What were you saying over the phone?" Charming addressed his wife. "You think you have an idea?"

"Okay," Snow said, "I don't even know what made me think of this. But I just remember that when we were first trying to prepare for the curse…and trying to figure out what to do…I heard rumors of this spell…and basically, it prevents you from traveling between worlds."

"What do you mean?" Emma asked.

"I think if we can get our hands on it, and use it on Hook—once we send him through the portal, he'll be stuck wherever he lands _forever_. Does any of this sound familiar, Regina?"

"Why didn't I think of that before?" Regina's face lit up as her former enemy spoke. "And why the hell didn't I think to use it against my mother?"

"So it does exist?" Charming questioned.

"It does," Regina confirmed, "but it's rare—it's very, very rare. And it's particularly dark magic because it limits freedom for a lifetime. I'm not even sure if there's anything that can undo it. It's stronger than a barrier curse. And if the person tries to break it, they'll die trying."

"That's exactly what I heard," Snow nearly jumped up and down, satisfied with her contribution. "Do you think someone here would have it?"

"There's only one person who might have it…or at least, the ingredients."

"Rumple?" Emma asked, confident she already knew the answer.

"Of course," Regina sighed, "because I can't seem to escape him no matter how much I want to."

"I know he's not exactly your favorite person, Gina. But it might be worth a shot."

"It is," Regina agreed. "It's worth it."

"He doesn't want Hook around here anymore than we do," Charming added.

"You don't have to come if you don't want to see him," Emma suggested. "We can just go and see if it's even an option."

"No, it's fine. I should be there. I have the best chance of understanding the magic behind it if we need to create the spell from scratch. But we also need someone to make sure Hook doesn't do anything to break himself out of jail. Someone has to stay here."

"I'll do it!" Henry enthusiastically volunteered, after listening to his family scheme. Regina and Emma simultaneously looked at their son with pride. He had a hero's heart and always wanted to help, despite the potential consequences. "I'll make sure he doesn't get out!"

"How about we both stay here?" Charming offered. "We can watch him together."

"Awesome," Henry agreed. "Maybe I can finally use my sword."

Emma gave her father a grateful nod, happy her son could feel like he was a part of their team.

But Regina wasn't exactly thrilled with the idea; the image of Hook holding a gun to her head was still fresh in her mind. She wasn't all that sure the Captain would refrain from hurting a child. "Is that really the best idea? Maybe you should go see Ruby?"

"They'll be okay," Emma promised, "he's not going to hurt anyone now. We _won_. I promise."

Regina accepted Emma's word, trusting her judgement as not just mere opinion, but as solid fact.

But that didn't stop her from kissing Henry on the cheek and hugging him extra tight before they left the boys to guard their defeated nemesis.

* * *

Regina knocked on the door to Rumple's shop.

When he appeared before them, the look on his face made it all too apparent that he was not expecting this particular set of visitors.

"We have Hook," Regina said, without so much as a formal greeting. She knew he had no interest in small talk, and that the Captain's name would grab his attention more than anything else she could ever say to him.

"Alive or dead?" Rumple bluntly inquired.

"Alive," Snow said, fully aware it wasn't the answer he wanted to hear. "But he's in jail."

"Ah," Rumple said, his voice ripe with disappointment. "The savior strikes again, I assume?"

"It was actually Regina this time," Emma beamed. "He used some sleeping dust on me and I slept through the entire thing. Not so much with the savior action today, good thing I had the Queen on back-up duty."

"And what do you plan to do with him now?"

"We want to send him back through a portal."

"Naturally, since that worked _so_ very well last time," Rumple quipped. "Why don't you just let me kill him already? Or better yet, didn't you kill him yourself?"

"Because we have a better idea," Snow promised.

"Not sure I believe that a better idea exists, but I have a feeling you're not going to leave until you tell me. So, why don't you just come in so we can get this over with?"

* * *

"So what is it?" Rumple asked, as he stood behind the counter in his shop. "This brilliant idea of yours?"

"Snow reminded me of a spell," Regina began. "It's the one you can use to freeze someone in whatever land they're in. We want to use it on Hook right before sending him through a portal. That way we know he won't ever be able to come back."

Rumple said nothing, but immediately started rummaging through his belongings with an obvious sense of urgency.

"Does that mean you have it?" Snow asked.

"No," he said, "I don't have it."

"But can we make it," Regina stated. She knew this man all too well. And she knew he was looking for the things they would need to make their plan a reality.

"_You_ can, dearie. But I thought you gave up dark magic."

"I did."

"Well, this certainly falls under that category. Think you can handle it?"

Regina fell silent. If Snow hadn't showed up at the station, she didn't know if she would've been able to resist crushing Hook's heart. It had been so long since she had used dark magic, and she wanted to keep it that way. Not to mention that she felt she spent more than enough time with her alter-ego for one day. She didn't know how much more she could take.

"She can handle it," Snow spoke up with confidence. "She can _definitely_ handle it."

Regina nodded in agreement, signifying she was willing to try. Emma, and apparently Snow, believed in her. And Henry was back at the station with the man who had gone after her family. She had to do something. And this- it seemed like the best option.

"Alright then," Rumple said, "come with me and we can get started."

Before Emma knew what was happening, Regina was walking away from her. She was walking into the back of Rumple's shop, about to delve back into dark magic.

* * *

Emma stood in the door-frame, watching Regina.

It wasn't that she didn't trust her, because she did—truly and completely. But she was still worried—worried because of the sheer amount of stress this woman had been under for the past week and a half. Only an hour earlier she had battled against Hook and now, without even a cat nap, she was creating a complicated spell.

Emma also recognized the amount of pressure Regina was undoubtedly feeling. Because this truly was the perfect plan- but it was one that relied on her ability to create a spell that, as Emma understood, had only been created a few times before. If it worked, Regina would be saving her family—saving Rumple and Belle—saving the entire town from yet another threat. But Emma knew Regina was only thinking about what would happen if she failed.

The savior was fascinated as she watched; the way Regina worked with magic, it made it look like an art form. And Emma was in love with the way her future wife's face looked when she was so focused, so concentrated on the task before her.

Regina stood before a vile of liquid that suddenly turned from a dark green to a sky blue. Emma didn't know what that meant, but when Regina slammed her fists against the table, she knew it couldn't be good.

She decided to make her presence known.

"Are you okay?" Emma asked, as Regina turned around.

"How long have you been standing there?"

"Like ten minutes," Emma admitted. "I came to check on you, but then I was afraid to interrupt you."

"This _shouldn't_ be blue," she vented. "It wasn't supposed to turn blue. I must…I must have screwed it up."

"Hey," Emma approached her, "you're like…the most bad-ass queen of all time. I mean, didn't you see the leather pants?"

Regina smirked at Emma's attempt to make her feel better- at her willingness to downplay the importance of what she was doing.

"You_ can_ make this spell. You could probably make it in your sleep. You're just over-thinking it because you want it so badly."

"Perhaps; but unfortunately I think I might need to start over."

"Then you can start over," Emma encouraged her. "Whatever it takes, you'll do it."

"Can you…will you stay here with me?"

"Of course I will. I would've from the start, but I didn't want to be staring over your shoulder the entire time. I didn't want to make it worse."

"You'd do well to remember that you never make anything worse for me."

Emma's heart swelled at the admission. It was a simple moment, but one that she cherished. Even in the middle of all the chaos, their connection was the most stable thing either one of them had.

"Why don't you talk through the steps out loud?" Emma advised. "Not that I'll have any clue what the hell you're saying. But maybe it will just keep you on track."

"That's a really great idea, Em."

Emma stood by Regina's side for the rest of the afternoon. And she couldn't help but smile at the thought that this was what the rest of their lives would be like: through thick and thin, standing side by side.

* * *

Once Regina successfully completed the spell and Jefferson opened a portal, Hook's defeat was inevitable.

The entire Charming family, along with Rumple and Belle, were present at the station to watch the former-Evil Queen rid Storybook of the Captain for good.

"Oh, look," Hook said when he saw them, "it's all my favorite people in one place. How positively delightful."

Regina remained silent as she opened the jail cell and forcefully put him in handcuffs.

"Stop that," he nearly salivated, "you're going to make your girl jealous."

"It seriously never ends with him," Emma rolled her eyes as she watched the exchange.

But Regina remained silent as she pulled him out of the cell.

She knew that words were useless with him.

He was the man who had failed to kill her mother in the first place.

He was the man who almost prevented Emma from getting home from fairytale land.

He was the man who had brought Cora to Storybrook, back into her life.

The man who watched as Cora blamed her for Archie's "murder."

The man who set her house on fire.

He was the man who tried to kill Emma.

And she was done with him.

"Are we going on a little field trip?" Hook asked, as he was shoved into the back of the Emma's police-car.

"Yeah," Emma scoffed, "you're going on a fieldtrip, you asshole. And it's one I can promise you, you're _never, ever _coming back from."


	9. The Last Believer

**This is the last chapter. I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed writing this story so I hope you enjoyed reading it. When I started, I honestly wasn't sure where it would end up. But I'm happy with where it did. Not to mention, it gave me a great idea for my next fic! So, a BIG THANK YOU to all the readers. I love the SwanQueen nation with all my heart! **

* * *

Emma thought it was ridiculous that on the night before her wedding she had been forced to sleep in the guest room in her own house.

But Regina had insisted and she had agreed, because she wanted her fiancée to have every last thing she wanted.

As she snuggled under the blankets, sleeping alone for the first time in ages, she couldn't calm the knots she had in her stomach.

She couldn't stop herself from feeling nervous and she just didn't know _why._

Because she knew, for absolute certain, that this was right.

They were right-as a couple, as a team.

In fact, for once, everything in her world seemed right.

So she knew, these nerves, they weren't based on doubt. But they were coming from _somewhere.  
_

She shut her eyes tight and wished away the feeling.

And before she had too much time to over-think it, she was fast asleep.

* * *

_Emma found herself on the floor in the middle o__f the woods. She looked around and recognized her surroundings immediately; she was back in fairytale world. _

_She jumped up, feeling like she needed to be ready to defend herself from Ogres or any other mysterious creatures that lurked in this still unfamiliar world. _

_"Mom?" She called out, as she began to walk around. She knew in her gut her mother was not here, but felt the need to be absolutely certain._

_She heard footsteps behind her and she turned around, half expecting to be greeted by Mulan and Aurora. But instead, she saw a man. A tall, handsome man. A man who was staring at her with an intensity that made her slightly uncomfortable._

_"Emma Swan," he said, "finally we meet." _

_"Do I know you?" She asked, as she put her hands on her hips. _

_"No," he said. "But also...yes."_

_She looked at him closely, studied his eyes and his face. _

_And she just knew that she knew him. _

_And she knew exactly who he was._

_She didn't know how or why she did._

_But she knew. _

_"Daniel?" She whispered; his name escaped her lips and a wave of insecurity overcame her. _

"_Yes," he confirmed. _

_Emma took a step closer to him and threw her arms around him. She felt him hug her back, in an embrace that felt entirely too real. _

_"Sorry," she said, sheepishly, when they pulled apart, "I'm not really sure why I just did that." _

_"That's quite alright," he laughed at her. "It only seems appropriate." _

_"I can't believe this shit is real. I swear my life just keeps getting more ridiculous by the day. I mean, seriously, I was just getting used to the idea that my mom is Snow White and now I'm talking with the dead?" _

_"I find your sense of humor quite endearing, Emma. But this is just a dream. And you can't travel here when you choose to do so. So, don't get used to it or anything." _

_"But it's true then? That you told Regina Hook was after me...and you told my mom to come to the station that day?"_

_"I didn't tell them, exactly. I just pointed them in the right direction. You didn't believe them, did you?"_

"_Not really," she admitted. _

"_You're always late to the believer party."_

"_Yeah, I know," she said, "tell me about it."_

"_That alright," Daniel assured her. "It's part of who you are."_

"_You basically saved my life with the whole Hook thing." _

"_It's sort of my job around here."_

_"What is?"_

_"To protect you."_

_"Like...my guardian angel or something?" _

_"Something like that." _

_"But...why?"_

_"Someone has to. You're not the most coordinator savior I've ever seen. And you're rather adept at making enemies." _

_"Ain't that the truth," Emma muttered. She __found it impossible to take her eyes off of him. This piece of Regina's life that, until now, she had only imagined. _

_"Something on your mind?"_

"_Why does it have to be like this?" She blurted out. "Why did so much bad stuff happen to her?" _

_"Not every bad situation is as bad as it seems." _

_"Care to share any examples?"_

_"Think of all the good things that came out of you facing off with Hook: you finally told people about your relationship, you proposed, Regina and your mother are even getting along now." _

_"I guess that's true—but I just wish those things could have happened without Regina's lungs being the collateral damage. I feel like she's always the collateral damage. I just want her to catch a break, you know?"_

_"I do indeed know exactly what you mean." _

_"What was she like? When you were with her?" _

_"Beautiful, kind, gentle, passionate," Daniel shared. "But still, haunted…severely haunted by her family life."_

_"We're getting married tomorrow," Emma stated, unsure why she felt the need to bring it up._

_"I know that." _

_"I'm sorry that it's me and not you," she said as she looked at her feet. She was suddenly painfully aware of why she felt so nervous for her wedding. _

_"I'm not," he smiled at her. "And you have to know this: neither does she. You're __not __her second choice, Emma. So you have to stop even considering that thought."_

_"She loves you, Daniel. Everything she did was for you, in honor of you."_

_"Everyone has their role to play. Did you ever think that maybe mine was to get Regina exactly where she needed to be so she could finally have what she deserves?" _

_"Me?"_

_"Yes," he said, "you."_

_"Is that why we're talking? So you could tell me that?"_

_"I don't know, maybe."_

_"Are you going to be around? Are you just going to pop into our dreams whenever you have something important to say?"_

_"I'll always be around for you guys… but I don't think you'll need me for a while."_

_"Are you saying things actually might be calm in Storybrook for more than five minutes?"_

_"Maybe," Daniel repeated. "At least until Henry starts dating. Then I wish you the best of luck with the mama bear you've decided to marry." _

"_Thank you," Emma said, sincerely. "For everything. But mostly for helping to make her the person she is."_

_"You're welcome," Daniel replied. "Now, go. You have wedding to get to." _

_Emma wanted to leave. But she didn't want to let him go. She wanted to keep this connection to Regina as long as possible. So she embraced him once again. _

* * *

Emma woke up with the feeling of Daniel's arms around her waist fresh in her mind. The morning sun was shining through her window. But it was still painfully early.

She got up and made her way down the hallway. She open the bedroom door and watched as Regina slept.

She walked over to the bed and sat down. She kissed Regina gently, waking her up the best way she knew how.

"Good-morning," Regina smiled into Emma's lips as she woke up.

"Hi almost-wife," Emma smiled right back.

"How did you sleep all by yourself?"

"Actually, Daniel was in my dream last night."

"He was?" Regina was surprised to hear this from Emma, after her less than enthusiastic reaction to Snow's experience.

"Yup," Emma said. "He told me I was uncoordinated and that you're basically going to turn into a crazy bitch when Henry starts to date."

"I mean," Regina laughed, "I don't think anyone could argue with either of those points."

"But he also...he's like really excited for us to get married," Emma shared with a serious tone.

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yes, he told me he's got my back. I think he likes me."

"Of that, Emma, I am absolutely certain."

"I love you, you know."

"I love you, too. But you're going to have to get out of here now, because we _both_ have a wedding to get ready for."

Emma followed instructions, and left Regina in their room.

She ran down the hallway, not a single nerve left in her body.

She was ready for this.

She was ready for this wedding, this family, this life.

And she was ready for Daniel's prediction to come true.

She was ready for things to be calm in Storybrook.


End file.
